Every movie has its own distinct press rollout which can make or break the success of the film. Glen Powell promoted Twisters by doing silly little dances, which may or may not have helped the film rack up over $200 million at the domestic box office. But it only takes one small rift or even a TikTok trend to take what could be a typical release and push it into a potential PR mess, which seems to be happening more and more lately. That’s what makes It Ends With Us‘ press cycle so puzzling.
It Ends With Us is the popular romance novel from Gen Z whisperer Colleen Hoover. The book was released in 2016 and Hoover, who had already been the first self-published author to top the New York Times bestseller list, saw a massive uptick in sales during the pandemic, making It Ends With Us her most-popular book amongst a powerful demographic on the internet: young women.
The novel touches on heavy themes like death, domestic abuse, and generational trauma, but the novel became a hot topic amongst young adults on “BookTok” who dubbed themselves “CoHorts” and devoured her books, despite the serious subject matter. “This story was inspired by events in my life, but mostly from events in my mother’s life. It was very important to me, for that reason, to do her story justice,” Hoover told NY Daily News in 2016. “And I’ll probably never do it again, because my life now is honestly not dramatic enough to make a good book. So unless something huge changes in my life, I’ll probably stick to using my imagination to inspire the books,” she said at the time.
In 2019, actor Justin Baldoni announced that he would be starring and directing in a big-screen adaptation of the novel, and posted a photo of himself alongside Hoover. Soon enough, Blake Lively had signed on as Lily, sending TikTok into a frenzy. Lively also revealed she would produce the film.
Finally, the movie was given an August 2024 release date and the cast and crew began to do press. This is where things started falling apart.
Fans noticed that while promoting the film, Lively and Baldoni, who star as the central couple Lily and Ryle, had not taken any pictures together. This isn’t entirely unheard of, but people picked up on it. Then, some internet sleuths also realized that Lively, Hoover, and most of the cast had unfollowed Baldoni on Instagram, which is a major red flag in the year 2024. Baldoni was also seemingly doing his own press, appearing alone at events.
It should be noted that on-screen, Baldoni and Lively portray the somewhat loving couple (at first) Lily and Ryle, before Ryle starts becoming aggressive and abusive. But the abuse element of the story is largely absent from any promotion material — instead, when asked about how the story might connect with victims of abuse, Lively responded to questions with jokes. Lively has also been criticized for using It Ends With Us to promote her new haircare line, in addition to her drink line, Betty Buzz. Lively even got involved with a flower/booze pop-up in conjunction with the press tour about the movie, which is, again, a serious story about violent abuse. The pop-up served cocktails inspired by the movie, featuring none other than Ryan Reynolds’ Avaiation gin. It’s almost like this movie became a family business instead of a realistic cautionary tale.
Yet Baldoni has seemingly been working to bring awareness about domestic abuse. “I wanted to make sure this film always had a female gaze and I was never putting myself into it,” the actor/director told CBS. Baldoni didn’t even seem to care about the film’s success as long as it helped at least one person. “If it’s just a big commercial success, that’s on one side of it. The other side of it, for both [production company] Wayfarer Studios and myself is… it’s about that one person who’s in a similar situation to Lily,” he told PEOPLE.
Then, while at the premiere, Baldoni seemingly took himself out of the running to direct the sequel, if it even should come to fruition.
When asked by ET if he would return for a sequel, Baldoni said, “I think that there are better people for that one. I think Blake Lively’s ready to direct,” he said. “That’s what I think.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, the two might have disagreed about the final cut of the film. Lively reportedly commissioned a cut of the movie from editor Shane Reid, who was an editor on Deadpool & Wolverine, when she was unsatisfied with the direction, but it’s unclear if that contributed to the final cut. Lively did confirm that Reynolds, who is not credited as a producer, contributed to the script, something that screenwriter Christy Hall was unaware of.
Meanwhile, other stars of the film seem to be avoiding questions on the subject. Jenny Slate, who stars as Lily’s friend Allysa, dodged questions about Baldoni while at the premiere, as did Hoover. “I think he did a great job. They all did a great job,” she said, before moving into the next question.
The internet got loud enough to warrant a response from an unnamed source who told Page Six that Baldoni created an “extremely difficult” set for the cast, and made Lively “uncomfortable.” The source added, “It’s not just Blake. None of the cast enjoyed working with Justin…They certainly didn’t talk to him at the premiere.” Then PEOPLE jumped on the bandwagon: “All is not what it seems,” a set source told the magazine. “There is much more to this story. The principal cast and [author] Colleen Hoover will have nothing to do with him.”
A source then told TMZ that an on-set encounter made Lively feel “fat-shamed” by Baldoni, which caused more tension between the two. Reportedly, for a scene in which Baldoni would have to lift his co-star, he went to the on-set trainer and asked how much Lively weighed in order to protect his back from injury. Lively had given birth in February 2023 and this allegedly made her feel uncomfortable.
Somehow, it gets even weirder. Baldoni recently hired Melissa Nathan of The Agency Group as a crisis PR manager to handle the backlash. Nathan specializes in “media cleanup and brand management.” She is known for representing Johnny Depp during the Amber Heard trial.
This also isn’t the first report of Lively possibly “feuding” with her costars. Rumors have been swirling for years that Lively and her A Simple Favor costar Anna Kendrick couldn’t stand each other during filming, though we now know that a sequel is on the way, so it’s unclear what really went down there.
Meanwhile, Baldoni has a history of advocating for men to be more emotionally vulnerable, even going to far as to write an entire self-help book titled Man Enough, which was met with some backlash from the internet.
So, what is the end game here? It seems probable that Baldoni and Lively do not like each other, and they are hashing it out in public… even though the movie did just fine. There were some theories that the buzzy drama was just a marketing ploy for the film, but who knows.
After the initial backlash, Lively posted an Instagram story (which is already gone) where she shared resources for women who are experiencing abuse. Aside from the cringe interview moments and general lack of awareness, domestic abuse shouldn’t be repackaged as a romantic comedy, which seems to be how some moviegoers felt after watching the movie. Her hair products are still safe on the Grid, though.
These two actors seem to have been promoting two different agendas. Where Baldoni brought on nonprofit organization No More, a foundation for survivors of domestic and sexual violence, on board to help promote the film, Lively was showcasing her new line of haircair products while praising her husband’s (minor) work on the film. The juxtoposition itself has already shifted the focus from the actual real topics the movie covers, like escaping abuse, to whatever mess is going on between the two leads behind the scenes. We may never know what truly went down.
There might be some lessons to be learned here, it’s just unfortunate that it had to happen to the groups of young women who flocked to the movie theater possibly expecting a sunny romantic comedy, only to be served with a puzzling portrayal of a violent relationship, painted in a flowery haze.
Despite the marketing confusion, It Ends With Us managed to secure a strong opening weekend at the box office, raking in $100M in its first week, pushing past Deadpool and Wolverine‘s latest tallies. Maybe Sony is the real winner after all.
For more information and resources on domestic violence, visit No More.