As ‘It Ends With Us’ Box Office Rises and Drama Swirls, What’s Going on With the Sequel ‘It Starts With Us?’ | Exclusive

As “It Ends With Us” continues to light up the box office, fans of Colleen Hoover’s novel are eager to see the story continue with an adaptation of Hoover’s sequel “It Starts With Us.” But given the drama swirling around the film’s co-stars and press tour, how complicated will it be to get the follow-up off the ground?

Lifted by strong word-of-mouth, “It Ends With Us” crossed the $100 million mark at the domestic box office on Monday, surpassing $180 million globally against a $25 million budget. It has passed Paramount’s “IF” as the highest grossing non-sequel film this year and in the coming days will pass the box office total of fellow 2024 Sony release “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire”

But the attention paid to the press tour for “It Ends With Us” seemed to rival that of 2022’s “Don’t Worry Darling” as fans noticed that star/co-writer/director Justin Baldoni and star/producer Blake Lively kept their distance. The two did not conduct any interviews together and were not photographed together at the film’s red carpet premiere. The cast even sidestepped talking about Baldoni directly.

The pair reportedly sparred over the preferred cut of the film during post-production, with Hoover siding with Lively. Co-star Brandon Sklenar publicly acknowledged the rift in an Instagram post on Tuesday, saying, “What may or may not have happened behind the scenes does not and hopefully should not detract from what our intentions were in making this film.”

So where do things stand with the sequel “It Starts With Us” now that the first film is a bona fide hit?

According to two insiders with knowledge of the project, Wayfarer Studios, which was co-founded by Baldoni and optioned the first novel from Hoover in 2019, also holds the option to the film rights for “It Starts With Us,” so Baldoni would be involved in some capacity. But an additional insider told TheWrap that Sony Pictures – which distributed “It Ends With Us” — has the right to distribute the sequel.

The first insider cautioned that “no additional conversations have been had at this time regarding the sequel.”

“It Ends With Us” follows the complicated story between Lily Bloom (Lively) and Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni), who strike up a romance only for Lily to find herself in an abusive relationship. Lily’s first love, Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar), resurfaces in her life, upending her relationship with Ryle.

Hoover’s sequel “It Starts With Us” takes place immediately after the first novel ends and centers on the relationship between Lily and Atlas, but Ryle — Baldoni’s character — still factors into the story. Hoover said she wrote “It Starts With Us” as a “thank you” to fans of the first novel.

Baldoni has been asked about the sequel on the press tour and seemed to hint at Lively’s hands-on approach in a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight. When asked about returning to direct the follow-up, he said, “I think that there are better people for that one. I think Blake Lively’s ready to direct, that’s what I think.”

Lively has faced criticism on social media due to the film’s marketing campaign that presents the domestic abuse survival story as a romantic drama.

One of the film’s promos that has been heavily criticized is a TikTok on the film’s official page in which Lively says: “Grab your friends, wear your florals and head out to see it.” Critics said the comment seemed tone deaf and inappropriate considering the film is about domestic violence, and a trend of viral TikTok videos have flourished taking aim at Lively for not warning viewers of the film’s true nature.

In his Instagram post on Tuesday, Sklenar came to Lively’s defense. “Colleen [Hoover] and the women of this cast stand for hope, perseverance and for women choosing a better life for themselves,” he said. “Vilifying the women who put so much of their heart and soul into making this film because they believe so strongly in its message seems counterproductive and detracts from what this film is about. It is, in fact, the opposite of the point.”

Jeremy Fuster contributed to this report.

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