It Ends with Us | |
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Directed by | Justin Baldoni |
Screenplay by | Christy Hall |
Based on | It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover |
Produced by |
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Starring |
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Cinematography | Barry Peterson |
Edited by |
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Music by |
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Production companies | |
Distributed by | Sony Pictures Releasing |
Release dates |
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Running time | 130 minutes [4] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $25 million [5] |
Box office | $349.2 million [6] [7] |
It Ends with Us is a 2024 American romantic drama film directed by Justin Baldoni from a screenplay by Christy Hall, based on the 2016 novel by Colleen Hoover. The film stars Blake Lively alongside Baldoni, Brandon Sklenar, Jenny Slate, and Hasan Minhaj.
It Ends with Us had its world premiere at the AMC Lincoln Square in New York City on August 6, 2024, and was released by Sony Pictures Releasing across the United States on August 9. The film received mixed reviews from critics, but was a box-office success, grossing $349.2 million worldwide against a production budget of $25 million.
Lily Bloom visits her small hometown in rural Maine, to deliver a eulogy at her father's funeral. At the podium, she says she will list five of her favorite things about him, then stands in silence for several seconds before walking off.
Back home in Boston, Lily prepares to open her own flower shop, called Lily Bloom's. While sitting on the rooftop of an apartment complex, she meets neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid, who lives on the top floor. They become mutually attracted, but their encounter is cut short when he has to leave for an emergency surgery.
While renovating the building that will become her shop, Lily meets Allysa, who is looking for work. After talking for a few minutes, Lily hires Allysa, despite not originally planning to hire anyone. Lily later learns that Allysa is Ryle's sister.
At Allysa's birthday party, Ryle tells Lily he cannot stop thinking about her. They kiss, but Lily stops him, as he is only interested in casual affairs while she wants a serious relationship. She spends the night at his apartment without having sex. The next morning, she agrees to date him. Ryle gets her to take him to meet her mother Jenny at a new restaurant, Root. She discovers that the owner and head chef is her high school sweetheart, Atlas Corrigan.
One morning, Ryle burns his hand while cooking breakfast for her. When Lily tries to help, he hits her in the face. Ryle apologizes, insisting it was an accident. He takes Lily to dinner with Allysa and her husband Marshall at Root. Noticing Lily's bruised eye and Ryle's bandaged hand, Atlas confronts her in the bathroom and implores her to leave him. Finding them together, Ryle confronts him, leading to a physical altercation that culminates in Atlas ejecting Ryle.
Atlas visits Lily's shop to apologize, and gives her his phone number should she ever need it. Lily reveals to Ryle that her father was physically abusive towards her mother. Allysa later gives birth to her and Marshall's daughter; while visiting her in the hospital, Ryle proposes to Lily, which she accepts. Ryle eventually finds Atlas' number and angrily storms out of the apartment. In the ensuing argument, he pushes her down the stairs, though later claims she accidentally fell, and he tried to catch her.
Both Lily Bloom's and Root are featured in a local magazine, including an interview with Atlas in which he admits he named the restaurant in Lily's honor. In a jealous rage, Ryle attempts to rape her. She escapes and seeks out Atlas at his restaurant. He takes her to the hospital, where she discovers that she is pregnant. She stays with Atlas for a few days, during which he admits he still loves her.
When Lily opens up to Allysa about Ryle's treatment of her, Allysa confides that, as a child, Ryle accidentally shot and killed their older brother, Emerson, leading to unresolved trauma that manifests in bouts of uncontrollable rage. She insists that Lily not take Ryle back.
Lily moves out, though Ryle begs her to return, promising to seek psychiatric help and cease the abuse. She gives birth to a daughter, whom they name Emerson. Lily tells Ryle she wants a divorce; he agrees after she asks him how he would react if their daughter were being abused by a partner. She hopes she has finally ended the cycle of abuse in her family, telling her daughter, "It ends with us."
Lily and her mother take Emerson to visit Lily's father's grave, where Lily leaves the blank list for her eulogy. Lily runs into Atlas at a farmers' market. She tells him that she is no longer with Ryle, and they smile at each other.
In July 2019, Justin Baldoni optioned the novel for a film adaptation, to be produced through his Wayfarer Studios company. [10] In January 2023, Blake Lively was cast in the role of Lily Bloom. Baldoni, who plays Ryle Kincaid, also signed on as director with Christy Hall adapting the script. [11] [12] In April 2023, Brandon Sklenar was cast to play the role of Atlas. [13]
Principal photography began in Hoboken, New Jersey, at Field Colony, a workspace and art gallery, on May 5, 2023. [14] Later that same month, Hasan Minhaj was announced to have joined the cast. [15] The next month, production had to temporarily pause due to the 2023 WGA strike. [16] Just over half of the film was completed when production shut down. [17] The production was still on hold when the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike began on July 14, 2023. [18] Filming resumed in the Newport neighborhood of Jersey City, New Jersey, on January 5, 2024. [19] [20] That same month, Isabela Ferrer and Alex Neustaedter joined the cast as the younger versions of Lily and Atlas, respectively. [21]
Rob Simonsen and Duncan Blickenstaff composed the film score. Madison Gate Records released the soundtrack, coinciding with the film's release date. [22]
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Opening" | 2:21 |
2. | "It Was Nice Meeting You" | 1:38 |
3. | "Lily's Past" | 1:01 |
4. | "Seeing Atlas" | 0:52 |
5. | "First Impressions" | 1:09 |
6. | "Lily Bloom's Flower Shop" | 1:22 |
7. | "Naked Truths" | 1:30 |
8. | "Getting Ready for Bed" | 2:01 |
9. | "Bus Kiss" | 2:12 |
10. | "What Can I Get You?" | 0:55 |
11. | "Lily and Atlas Reconnect" | 2:23 |
12. | "Anyone But Him" | 3:14 |
13. | "Leave Him" | 2:22 |
14. | "Proposal" | 1:28 |
15. | "It's Nothing" | 1:00 |
16. | "Fall in Love with Me" | 1:27 |
17. | "Please Stop" | 2:43 |
18. | "I Used to Love Flowers" | 1:13 |
19. | "Lily Survives" | 2:49 |
20. | "Birth" | 1:03 |
21. | "It Ends with Us" | 2:51 |
22. | "A New Beginning" | 3:11 |
Total length: | 40:45 |
Sources told the The Hollywood Reporter that an alleged conflict formed between Lively and Baldoni during post-production after the film underwent a week of reshoots and Lively commissioned a second cut of the film from editor Shane Reid. [23] [24] Reid had previously worked on the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) starring Lively's husband, Ryan Reynolds, and the Lively-directed Taylor Swift music video "I Bet You Think About Me". The edit used in theaters, reportedly the version Lively preferred, [24] was credited to Oona Flaherty and Robb Sullivan. In addition, the publication confirmed that Reynolds wrote "a large chunk" of the dialogue for a scene set on a balcony, allegedly in April 2023 before the WGA strike, which Baldoni was not told of. [23] [25] Speculation about the alleged rift grew on platforms such as TikTok (where the book was massively popular on the "BookTok" subcommunity) [26] in videos that noted Baldoni's absence from joint press events. [23] In August 2024, Baldoni hired a public relations crisis manager. [27] Sources confirmed to Variety that while they would not "articulate any legitimate transgressions from either party" that "the bad blood between the two is very real and the relationship may not be salvageable". [25]
During her promotional tour for the film, Lively received criticism from social media users who accused her of being "tone-deaf" for displaying a "light-hearted humorous" attitude and not explicitly addressing her character's experience of domestic violence and abuse. Users were also critical of Lively for promoting her new haircare line, as well as her drinks brand, during the press tour and for encouraging moviegoers to wear floral clothes, which some deemed insensitive to the film's messaging surrounding domestic violence. Following the criticism, Lively posted to her Instagram stories in support of victims of intimate partner violence and shared a link to the National Domestic Violence Hotline. [28] [29] [30] Bridgette Stumpf of The Hollywood Reporter wrote on the issue, "By glossing over its domestic violence content in the film's marketing, and by not providing any content warnings prior to the start of the film, It Ends With Us ultimately fails the survivors it is supposed to advocate for." [31]
It Ends with Us premiered at the AMC Lincoln Square in New York City on August 6, 2024. [32] The film was originally set to be released theatrically in the United States on February 9, 2024, [17] and June 21, 2024, [33] but the release date was pushed back to August 9, 2024. [34] It was released earlier on August 7 in Belgium, [35] Finland, [36] the Philippines, [37] and Sweden. [38]
It Ends with Us was released on VOD on September 24, 2024, and is set to be released on Blu-ray and DVD on November 5, 2024. [39] [40]
As of November 2,2024 [update] , It Ends with Us has grossed $148.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $200.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $349.2 million. [6] [7] Variety said the film would net at least $25–30 million in profits for Sony and Baldoni's Wayfarer Studios, with one industry source "[putting] that figure at double", not accounting for box office bonuses for Baldoni and Lively. [25]
In the United States and Canada, It Ends with Us was released alongside Borderlands and Cuckoo , and was projected to gross $23–30 million in its opening weekend, with some estimates going as high as $40–50 million. [5] The film made $24 million on its first day, including an estimated $7 million from Thursday previews night. It went on to debut to $50 million, finishing second behind holdover Deadpool & Wolverine [41] but becoming the number one in the following weekends. [42] It marked the first time since 1990 that two films separately starring a married Hollywood couple (in this case, It Ends with Us star Blake Lively and Deadpool & Wolverine star Ryan Reynolds) occupied the number one and two spots at the box office simultaneously, and the first time two films grossed at least $50 million in the same weekend in the month of August. [43] [44] The film crossed $100 million domestically on August 19, after eleven days in theaters. [45]
Reception of the film from critics was mixed, but audiences responded positively. [46] [47] [48] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 57% of 180 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.6/10.The website's consensus reads: "Earnestly performed if marred by clunky dialogue, It Ends with Us is surprisingly at its most graceful when handling the more provocative elements of its melodramatic source material." [49] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 53 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. [50] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it an 85% positive score, with 69% saying they would definitely recommend it. [41]
Wendy Ide of The Observer gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, writing: "For a film that dips its Manolo-clad toe into the murky waters of domestic abuse, it's unexpectedly aspirational, almost frothy in tone." [51] The Globe and Mail 's Johanna Schneller praised Lively's performance, writing: "Beyond nailing Lily's exact shade of auburn hair, funky/sexy dress and vision-notebook stuffed with flowers, she also conveys her luminousness and strength, and reminds you how pleasurable it can be to watch a romantic thriller." [52] Kevin Maher of The Times gave it 4 out of 5 stars, calling it "a glossy, sometimes soapy but always compelling adaptation". [53]
Hannah Giorgis of The Atlantic was more critical, writing: "To young people who have become inured to the misery of modern life, there's a seductive premise in these novels: Relentless suffering can give way to freedom—and hot sex—if women want it badly enough. On-screen, performed by real people, it's not as convincing." [54] The Sydney Morning Herald 's reviewer Sandra Hall gave the film two and a half out of five stars, saying that it was "packed with erotic cliches overlaid with a rolling soundtrack of pop hits that includes songs by Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey", and called the dialogue "risible". [55]
In August 2024, following the release of the film, director Justin Baldoni acknowledged the potential for a film adaptation of the sequel novel It Starts with Us . However, he later stated that he would not return in his role as director, suggesting that Blake Lively direct the film instead. [56] [57] Baldoni's Wayfarer Studios holds the rights to It Ends with Us and It Starts with Us after acquiring them in 2019. [25]
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