This weekend at the movie office, “It Ends With Us,” featuring Blake Lively from Sony Pictures, and husband Ryan Reynolds from Walt Disney Co. from “Deadpool & Wolverine,” posed a serious challenge. It was a fight of the celebrity couples.
Table of Contents
According to Sony’s estimations released on Sunday, “It Ends With Us” exceeded all initial projections and had a huge premiere with $50 million in ticket sales in the United States and Canada after an incredible pre-sale haul. It was first estimated that the movie would cost between $25 and $35 million to release.
Disney reports that “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which last month achieved the largest domestic opening ever for an R-rated film, brought in a total of $494.3 million in its third weekend. With an additional $112 million over the weekend, the superhero blockbuster earned $1 billion globally, surpassing “Inside Out 2” as the only other movie to do so this year.
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, producers of their own films
The 2012 couple, Lively and Reynolds, are both listed as producers of their own films. (As if their rollouts weren’t already interwoven enough, Reynolds co-wrote a pivotal sequence for “It Ends With Us,” while Lively has a cameo in “Deadpool & Wolverine.”)
Starring Lively as a flower shop owner who falls in love with an abusive neurosurgeon, “It Ends with Us” is based on the best-selling Colleen Hoover novel of the same name. The film’s director, Justin Baldoni, is joined in the supporting cast by Jenny Slate, Brandon Sklenar, and him.
Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore
Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the romance-drama an A-minus, but review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave it a mediocre 59% favorable rating.
For Tribune News Service, film reviewer Katie Walsh said, “‘It Ends With Us’ continues the tradition of ‘women’s pictures,’ that were an essential part of Hollywood film production in the 1940s — Bette Davis could have starred in a version of this about 80 years ago.”
Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the romance-drama an A-minus, but review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave it a mediocre 59% favorable rating.
For Tribune News Service, film reviewer Katie Walsh said, “‘It Ends With Us’ continues the tradition of ‘women’s pictures,’ that were an essential part of Hollywood film production in the 1940s — Bette Davis could have starred in a version of this about 80 years ago.”
“But women’s pictures also have to express a stark reality that unfortunately gets muddled here, in a bungled adaptation that is at once too close and too far from its source.”
According to measurement company Comscore, filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung’s “Twisters” ended its fourth weekend at the No. 3 box office with $15 million. The spectacular action scene in the Universal picture has helped it reach a $222.3 million domestic total.
“Borderlands,” directed by Eli Roth and met with considerable criticism, debuted to a dismal $8.8 million for Lionsgate. “Despicable Me 4,” which took fifth place with $8 million during its sixth weekend, was narrowly defeated by it. The overall domestic ticket sales for Universal’s animated smash have surpassed $330.1 million.
Neon’s “Cuckoo,” which debuted in the top 10 and ended the weekend in ninth place with $3 million, was the only other new entry.
The films “Alien: Romulus” from Disney, “Ryan’s World the Movie: Titan Universe Adventure” from Falling Forward Films, “My Penguin Friend” from Roadside Attractions, and “Skincare” from IFC Films are all set to open the following weekend.
In Short About Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds
“It Ends With Us” exceeded initial projections with $50 million in ticket sales in the US and Canada, surpassing pre-sale estimates. Disney’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” achieved the largest domestic opening ever for an R-rated film, earning $1 billion globally, surpassing “Inside Out 2” as the only other movie to do so this year.
