The August box office looks buoyant, with Sony’s drama “It Ends With Us” scoring a spectacular $24 million opening day from 3,611 locations on Friday and preview screenings. The film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s 2016 best-seller is now eyeing even higher projections of more than $45 million in its three-day frame — a fantastic start for a drama with a production budget of just $25 million, well below the typical studio summer tentpole’s spending.
Borderlands Is Going to Be a Huge Floppy for Lionsgate as It Ends With Us Movie Is Going to Kill It! BoxOffice
The popularity of Hoover’s novel on TikTok and its marketing aimed at female audiences led many analysts to believe that “It Ends With Us” could far exceed its previous results. The film now appears poised for a second-place opening weekend, close behind the third outing of Marvel’s smash hit “Deadpool & Wolverine,” starring Blake Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds. “It Ends With Us” was the highest-grossing film on its opening day, even subtracting the $7 million it took in previews. Friday’s $17 million puts it ahead of “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
Directed by Justin Baldoni, the feature stars Lively as a florist who falls for a neurosurgeon (also Baldoni) who is then forced to confront harsh realities when the arrival of a childhood friend (Brandon Sklenar) complicates their relationship. Fueled by enthusiasm for Hoover's novel and enthusiasm among early theatergoers (audience research firm Cinema Score gave it an "A" grade), the film has begun to play like a franchise installment among its summer blockbuster peers.
Less successful is “Borderlands,” Lionsgate’s long-awaited adaptation of Take-Two’s shoot-’em-and-loot-’em video game series. The feature grossed a paltry $4 million from 3,125 theaters, even with increased ticket sales from playing in Imax and other premium large-format auditoriums. The sci-fi comedy is in serious danger of opening below $10 million — a dismal result considering its $115 million production budget. It could even undercut director Eli Roth’s last feature, the modestly budgeted slasher “Thanksgiving,” which made eight figures when it debuted last fall.
