Colleen Hoover Thriller Breaks Post-It Ends With Us Box Office Record

Published Oct 3, 2026, 11:24 AM EDT

Brennan Klein (he/him) is a senior news writer at Screen Rant, host of the Attack of the Queerwolf podcast, and contributor at Alternate Ending and Horror Press. He has been writing and podcasting about pop culture (especially horror movies) for over a decade at platforms including Blumhouse, Fangoria, Dread Central, The Backlot, and Arrow in the Head.

Verity is having a pulse-pounding opening weekend.

The new movie is an adaptation of the Colleen Hoover novel of the same name. The first big-screen Hoover adaptation, the 2024 romance It Ends with Us, was an explosive hit, grossing a whopping $351 million against a reported budget of just $25 million. Since then, three more adaptations have been mounted, namely 2025's Regretting You and 2026's Reminders of Him, which were both romances, and 2026's Verity, which is an erotic thriller starring Dakota Johnson as a ghostwriter who is hired by the husband (Josh Hartnett) of an author (Anne Hathaway) to complete her popular book series.

Verity was directed by Michael Showalter (The Idea of You) from a screenplay by Nick Antosca (Channel Zero).

Per Deadline, as of Saturday morning, Verity is projected to earn a 3-day total of $33.6 million by the end of its opening weekend at the domestic box office. This sees it debuting at No. 1, beating out fellow new release Digger and holdover hits like Zach Cregger's Resident Evil.

In addition to earning the best domestic debut in eight years for a movie starring Dakota Johnson (since 2018's Fifty Shades Freed, which debuted with $38.6 million), this total also breaks the record for the best domestic debut for a Colleen Hoover adaptation post-It Ends with Us. Below, see a breakdown of the domestic debuts and overall performance of the previous three Colleen Hoover movies:

Title	Domestic Debut	Worldwide Gross
It Ends with Us (2024)	$50 million	$351.4 million
Regretting You (2025)	$13.7 million	$90.4 million
Reminders of Him (2026)	$18 million	$89.3 million

It ultimately seems unlikely that the Anne Hathaway movie will be able to replicate the multiplier of It Ends with Us, which had its theatrical run boosted by widespread rumors of behind-the-scenes drama that culminated in a lawsuit between star Blake Lively and director-star Justin Baldoni. Verity reviews have also been harsher, giving it a Rotten score of 34% on Rotten Tomatoes compared to It Ends with Us' still Rotten but superior 55%.

However, Regretting You earned an even worse 29% and still managed to become a sizable hit. If Verity is able to replicate the 2025 movie's multiplier, it could ultimately earn more than $200 million worldwide by the end of its run. This would see it more than justifying its reported $40 million budget, which makes it the most expensive Colleen Hoover adaptation so far (all three previous movies reportedly cost $25 million).

Because movies often need to earn back two and a half times their budgets in theaters, that production budget could place Verity's estimated break-even point as high as $100 million. However, given the fact that it could very well double that by the end of its run, it seems on track to turn a solid profit, just like the previous Hoover movies.

Verity is the last of the major Colleen Hoover feature adaptations that were developed in the wake of the success of It Ends with Us. However, if it does live up to the promise of its No. 1 opening weekend, it's entirely possible that more adaptations could be mounted before long. Hoover is a prolific author with more than two dozen books to her name, including easily franchisable series such as Hopeless, Slammed, and Maybe Someday.

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