‘It Ends With Us’ has become a box office sensation despite the controversy surrounding Blake Lively

Lively, who is also a producer on the movie, went directly to the book’s fans to get them excited for its big screen adaptation.

In mid-June, just under two months before the movie’s opening weekend, Lively, Hoover, and Sklenar attended the Book Bonanza festival in Grapevine, Texas, as its opening keynote. The film was then screened for 2,000-plus attendees the following night.

In July, Sony also screened the movie to over 300 book influencers, capitalizing on Hoover’s popularity with the BookTok crowd. This was followed by Lively and Hoover doing a livestream Q&A through Instagram’s Creators page, which has 18.3 million followers.

Targeted marketing to book lovers helped fuel the movie’s impressive $50 million opening. But it was attention to the behind-the-scenes drama that gave it box office legs.

The Blake Lively/Justin Baldoni controversy made audiences more intrigued to see the movie

An early August release can lead to box office glory if you have a title different from the usual blockbusters of the season.

By the time “It Ends With Us” opened, moviegoers had already gone to see the big event titles of the summer: “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” “Inside Out 2,” “Despicable Me 4,” “Twisters,” and “Deadpool & Wolverine.” It was time for a change, and “In Ends With Us” was right there.

Sony should also say thank you to “Deadpool & Wolverine.” Though the film studio covered getting the word out to fans of the book, for those who have no clue who Colleen Hoover is, they saw Lively alongside Reynolds on the red carpet and heard her voice as Ladypool in the movie. We wouldn’t be shocked if couples who went to see “Deadpool & Wolverine” then went to see “In Ends With Us.” (Compromise is the key to any successful relationship.)

“The combined star power of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds certainly provided a boost,” noted Dergarabedian, though he believes praise for the surprise success of “It Ends With Us” should go to the book’s fans.

“It proved once again that while a movie may fly under the radar for some, a fan-based powerhouse such as ‘It Ends With Us’ shows the power of a best-selling novel to draw fans from the page to the big screen,” he added.