Colleen Hoover's 'Verity' Opens to $62M Worldwide, Extending the Author's Grip on Theaters

The Colleen Hoover machine keeps printing money. 'Verity,' the erotic psychological thriller adapted from Hoover's 2018 novel, opened at No. 1 last weekend with a domestic haul of $32.6 million and a global debut of $62.1 million, according to figures reported by Deadline. Critics largely hated it, the film is sitting at 34% on Rotten Tomatoes, and audiences largely did not care.

Directed by Michael Showalter (whose last big hit was 'The Big Sick' back in 2017) and written by Nick Antosca, the film stars Anne Hathaway as the title character, a bestselling novelist whose husband (Josh Hartnett) hires struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson) to finish her book series. What follows is exactly what readers of the novel signed up for: a twisty, morally murky psychological slow-burn that the Rotten Tomatoes score describes as not nearly as creepy, campy, or sexy as it could have been, per Collider's review. And yet.

As Variety reported ahead of the opening weekend, 'Verity' was targeting a $30-35 million domestic debut from 3,510 theaters. It hit the high end of that range. As Looper noted citing Deadline data, 79% of its opening weekend audience was women, the same core that has driven every Hoover adaptation across the finish line. That's not an accident. It's a fanbase that is organized, that shows up, and that frankly does not need a fresh tomato to decide whether to buy a ticket.

For perspective on how far Hoover has come as a film property: 'It Ends With Us' debuted at $50 million domestically in 2024 and went on to gross $351 million worldwide, partly turbocharged by the behind-the-scenes drama between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. 'Verity' won't hit those numbers, it lacks the tabloid fuel, but according to Screen Rant, it's already set the post-'It Ends With Us' record for best domestic debut among Hoover adaptations, beating the $18 million opening of 'Reminders of Him' earlier this year by a significant margin.

The other interesting number here is the budget: $40 million. That's what Amazon MGM Studios spent on a film that grossed over $60 million in its first weekend globally. As Variety noted, Hoover adaptations carry modest budgets that make them low-risk bets for studios. In a market where Tom Cruise's 'Digger' reportedly cost four times that and opened to just $20 million worldwide the same weekend, per Deadline, the economics of the CoHo model are hard to argue with.

For Hathaway, 'Verity' is her third No. 1 film of 2026, following 'The Odyssey' and 'The Devil Wears Prada 2,' the latter of which grossed $693 million worldwide. Collider has been tracking this and called her, without much exaggeration, the box office queen of 2026. Pajiba, never one to oversell, went ahead and called all five of her 2026 releases a combined earner of well over $2.6 billion. Zendaya is apparently her only real competition for the year's crown.

All of which sets up an interesting counterpoint this coming weekend, when Sony releases Taika Waititi's 'Klara and the Sun,' his adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's 2021 novel. That one stars Jenna Ortega as Klara, an Artificial Friend navigating a near-future dystopian society, alongside Amy Adams and Natasha Lyonne. Where 'Verity' is critic-proof pulp with a built-in fandom, 'Klara' is Nobel Prize-winning literary source material directed by an Academy Award winner. Storizen noted it as autumn's most anticipated page-to-screen event. World of Reel, less charitably, called the CinemaCon trailer a sign of an expensive flop in the making.

Both can't be right. But with 'Verity' having just proved that audiences will show up for Hoover even without critics, the real question heading into next weekend is whether Ishiguro's devoted readers will do the same for Waititi.

Sources cited:
- Deadline (https://deadline.com/2026/10/box-office-global-verity-digger-1237146180/)
- Variety (https://variety.com/2026/film/box-office/verity-box-office-opening-weekend-projection-1236893670/)
- Rotten Tomatoes / Collider (https://collider.com/anne-hathaway-verity-box-office-33-million/)
- Looper (https://www.looper.com/2279147/anne-hathaway-verity-movie-box-office-success-explained/)
- Screen Rant (https://screenrant.com/verity-box-office-opening-weekend-domestic-result/)
- Pajiba (https://www.pajiba.com/celebrities_are_better_than_you/anne-hathaway-ends-crowded-2026-with-third-number-one-film-verity.php)
- Storizen (https://storizen.com/news/klara-and-the-sun-movie-2026-jenna-ortega-amy-adams-release-date/)
- World of Reel (https://www.worldofreel.com/blog/2026/4/13/taika-waititis-klara-and-the-sun-sets-october-2026-release-first-trailer-screened-looks-like-an-expensive-flop)