Will we ever know how it ends?
After three weeks in theaters, “It Ends With Us,” a big screen adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling book, has become a box office smash to the tune of $242 million worldwide. Ticket sales are projected to reach at least $285 million to $300 million. In a summer that’s been dominated by films catering to kids and teenage boys, “It Ends With Us” is the rare cinematic event that’s appealing to female audiences.
It’s hugely profitable, too. “It Ends With Us” cost $25 million to produce and is expected to net at least $25 million to $30 million in profits for both Sony (which distributed the film) and director-star Justin Baldoni‘s Wayfarer Studios (which co-financed it with TSG Entertainment). Another source familiar with the deal-making puts that figure at double. Those margins don’t include proceeds for cinemas or box office bonuses for star Blake Lively and Baldoni.
A sequel to the novel, “It Starts With Us,” already exists, so there would be no need to stretch the source material to exploit a hit, à la “Big Little Lies.” And the existence of that follow-up story should be a clear sign that moviegoers haven’t seen the last of Lily, Ryle and Atlas — the characters portrayed by Lively, Baldoni and Brandon Sklenar, respectively, in the film. Hollywood players typically capitalize on positive box office headlines by fast-tracking the announcement of another installment. But an apparent feud between Lively and Baldoni that has spilled out into the public eye has left any sequel plans looking precarious.
“This is uncharted territory, and nobody has any idea of what a sequel could look like,” says a source familiar with the situation. “There’s probably no world where these two will work together again.”
As the chronically online are aware, the lead-up to “It Ends With Us” was riddled with tabloid fodder about off-screen drama. It started with rumors about hostility between Baldoni and the rest of the cast after he was not photographed with them at the Aug. 6 New York premiere. Nor did Baldoni introduce the film alongside Lively and Hoover. Internet sleuths also discovered that none of his fellow actors follow Baldoni on Instagram other than Hasan Minhaj, who plays the brother in law of Baldoni’s character. There’s been speculation that Lively and Baldoni clashed over the final cut of the movie, with Lively’s preferred version as the one that reportedly made it to the big screen.
Some screenwriters have said it was odd that Lively admitted during a red carpet interview that her husband Ryan Reynolds wrote a key scene in the final cut of the film. Sources say that came as news to Baldoni, who thought the scene had been ad libbed by Lively. The WGA did not respond to a request for comment about whether Reynolds’ work is a guild violation that could spark a credits issue. Though movies can have uncredited writers, rarely would the director be unaware of it.
Reynolds’ involvement raises a second WGA issue. The film began production on May 5, 2023 — three days after the start of last summer’s WGA strike. Reynolds, who received a screenwriter credit on “Deadpool 2” and “Deadpool & Wolverine,” is a WGA member and would have been barred from contributing to the screenplay between May 2 and Sept. 27, 2023. Writers picketed the New Jersey set, and production was paused in late June 2023 before the SAG-AFTRA strike commenced on July 14. (A source close to Reynolds says he took a pass on the film’s rooftop scene in April 2023.)
Neither Baldoni or Lively have addressed the chatter publicly, but multiple sources confirm to Variety that the bad blood between the two is very real and the relationship may not be salvageable. Yet none of those sources could articulate any legitimate transgressions from either party.
The rift is complicated by the fact that Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios holds the cinematic rights to both “It Ends With Us” and “It Starts With Us” after acquiring them in 2019 from Hoover. The author told Variety that she rejected several offers before agreeing to team with Baldoni on the big-screen adaptation. “I felt like he understood the book and he understood the importance of people needing to see it on screen,” Hoover said.
So, Lively and Baldoni may need to follow the example of “Sex and the City 2” co-stars Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall and set aside their personal differences for business if they want to realize their completed vision for “It Starts With Us.” Baldoni has suggested that he won’t direct the sequel, telling Entertainment Tonight at the movie’s premiere, “I think there are better people for that. I think Blake Lively’s ready to direct.” The character Ryle plays a much smaller role in the second book’s narrative, making it easier for Baldoni to step aside at least as an actor. Still, he and Lively would need to come to some kind of an accord given his role as producer.
Wayfarer and Baldoni hold the rights to both novels and don’t merely have an option, as is often the case with hot literary properties. Therefore, he doesn’t need to renew an agreement (which typically expire 18 months after inking a deal) and is the sole party who can determine its fate, according to sources familiar with terms of the contract. The deal was ironed out after the novel had sold a number of copies but before Hoover became ubiquitous on BookTok, the subset of TikTok that’s devoted to reading and helped propel the author to literary stardom. “It Ends With Us” was published in 2016 but didn’t become a phenomenon until years later; it was the talk of TikTok in 2021 before becoming the top-selling print novel of 2022 and 2023.
Prior to the film’s release, Baldoni told Variety regarding the sequel novel that he and Wayfarer haven’t “even begun to think that far ahead. I’m trying to stay in the present as much as I can.” However, industry sources say it’s hard to imagine the creative minds at Wayfarer, which has backed titles like “The Garfield Movie” and the upcoming Will Ferrell documentary “Will & Harper,” haven’t considered adapting the second installment in the wildly popular two-part book series.
Sony has the automatic option to distribute a theoretical sequel but can’t force a follow-up film without involvement from Wayfarer. The second novel takes place a few months after the events of the first, so producers likely wouldn’t want too much time to pass at risk of the actors aging out of the roles. Entertainment industry sources also note that ideally no more than two to three years would pass between installments to sustain audience interest.
“It Ends With Us” is already the highest-grossing film in the careers of Baldoni (surpassing his directorial debut “Five Feet Apart” with $92.5 million) and Lively (overtaking 2011’s “Green Lantern” with $237 million). But instead of basking in the glow of box office glory, they’re doing damage control. Lively has been criticized for the bubbly nature in which she’s promoted a film that tackles dark themes like domestic violence, while Baldoni has hired the crisis firm Tag PR. Of course, none of this prevented audiences from going to theaters. “It Ends With Us” is on pace to be one of the top 10 highest grossing films of the year to date.
“It’s among the highlights of the summer,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “Audiences are waiting for the next chapter.”
From Variety US