It Ends with Us Blake Lively Is Not the Target of Justin Baldoni’s Clash: “Cast Will Have Nothing to Do With Him”

“Everything is not as it seems,” a stated insider informs PEOPLE. “This tale is far more complex than that. He won’t interact with [author] Colleen Hoover or the main cast in any way.”

When PEOPLE asked representatives for Lively, 36, and Baldoni, 40, for comments, they did not reply.

Over the weekend, It Ends With Us, starring Lively as Lily Bloom, a florist who falls in love with a neurosurgeon called Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni), opened to a robust $50 million at the domestic box office. From there, a toxic relationship develops.

Before the movie came out, there were rumors of tensions behind the scenes since Baldoni handled most of the press appearances by himself and declined to take group photos with the actors at the New York premiere. Additionally, Lively, Hoover, and Slate’s lack of reciprocal Instagram following of Baldoni was quickly noticed by fans.

Requests for comments from representatives of Slate, Sklenar, Minhaj, Ferrer, Neustaedter, and Hoover were not answered.

Review: Blake Lively Faces the Pains of the Heart and the Chains of the Past in It Ends With Us

The option to adapt It Starts With Us belongs to Baldoni’s production business Wayfarer Studios, he told Variety, but “I haven’t even begun to think that far ahead.” I’m making every effort to live in the now.”

News of Baldoni’s purported actions first arose on August 9, when the Daily Mail released an article claiming that Baldoni was “borderline abusive” and “chauvinistic” while working on the It Ends with Us set. Page Six revealed that same day that Baldoni made the entire ensemble feel like they were working in a “very difficult” environment behind the scenes.

Lively has mentioned adding her own touches to the movie’s music, clothes, screenplay, and other elements. She is also a producer on It Ends with Us.

Now showing in cinemas is It Ends with Us.

“It Ends With Us” Brings in $50 Million at the Box Office “Borderlands” Opens With $8.8 Million But Fails

“It Ends With Us,” Colleen Hoover’s literary phenomenon, is currently a box office hit.

In its first weekend of release, the cinematic version of her 2016 book, which starred Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni (who also directed), brought in an incredible $50 million from 3,611 North American theaters. With a $80 million global premiere, “It Ends With Us” earned $30 million abroad. The film, which was co-financed for $25 million by Sony Pictures and Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios, has achieved a significant triumph.

The plot of “It Ends With Us” centers on Lily Bloom (Lively), a small company owner who becomes entangled in a romantic triangle with Ryle (Baldoni), an attractive but violent neurosurgeon, and Atlas (Brandon Sklenar), her first boyfriend. Although reviews for the PG-13 love drama were varied, viewers were overwhelmingly positive about it, earning a “A-” on CinemaScore.

Director of Franchise Entertainment Research, David A. Gross, comments, “This is a sensational opening for a dramatic romance film.” “On its own, pure romance films don’t do well at the box office, but every now and then a well-written plot with a strong female protagonist makes the picture shine. This is what’s taking place.

The first weekend of “It Ends With Us” saw strong ticket sales driven by TikTok and female viewers; according to Sony, almost half of the audience was made up of first-time moviegoers. Stated differently, the movie was aimed at an audience that hasn’t been particularly motivated to visit their neighborhood theater in a while. It is reasonable to believe that Lily, Ryle, and Atlas will make a big screen comeback because Hoover wrote the best-selling sequel, “It Starts With Us.”

“Deadpool & Wolverine,” starring Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds, added $54.2 million from 4,330 screens in its third weekend of release, and “It Ends With Us” narrowly missed the No. 1 slot. This is the first time two movies have made $50 million in a single weekend in August, which is usually a quiet month for multiplexes.

Regarding the Marvel film, which made its premiere at the end of last month, “undoubtedly the momentum that July delivered as a gift to this month was a factor,” says senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “However, the true secret to this weekend’s explosive chart-topping pair was ‘It Ends With Us’s’ excellent timing following ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ which set up this unexpected and very welcome August result.”

“Deadpool & Wolverine” has brought in an incredible $494.3 million in revenue domestically and $1.029 billion worldwide to date, topping the box office for three weekends in a row. The Marvel superhero adventure is expected to become the most grossing R-rated film in history in the coming days, surpassing 2019’s “Joker” ($1.07 billion).

The second new release this weekend, Lionsgate’s version of the video game “Borderlands,” starring Cate Blanchett, was a failure, opening with $8.8 million from 3,125 screens. After “Twisters,” which gained $15.4 million from 3,664 places in its fourth release, it came in fourth. The disaster epic from Universal has brought in $222 million domestically and $310 million internationally.

With a dismal $7.7 million at the foreign box office, “Borderlands” performed even worse overall, earning an abysmal $16.5 million worldwide. Despite the fact that international presales paid for almost 60% of “Borderlands'” production costs, studio insiders said the movie nevertheless had a terrible ending and fell well short of the already low pre-release expectations. The estimated $115 million production budget for “Borderlands” includes $30 million for marketing and distribution.

“Borderlands” is among the worst-reviewed films of the year, earning a “D+” CinemaScore and a 10% “rotten” score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The film, directed by Eli Roth, centers on Lilith (Blanchett), a notorious bandit with a shadowy background who reluctantly returns to her home planet of Pandora and forms an unlikely partnership in an attempt to locate Atlas’s lost daughter. Jack Black, Jamie Lee Curtis, Edgar Ramírez, and Ariana Greenblatt are among the talented cast members.

Gross continues, “It’s a total miss.” “An action comedy needs to be funny in order to succeed, and this movie isn’t funny in the eyes of most people.”

In other news, “Cuckoo,” a low-budget horror movie from Neon, made $3 million from 1,503 theaters during its first weekend of release. In the film, Hunter Schafer, well known for “Euphoria,” plays a teenage girl who moves to live with her father in the German Alps but is unsettled by unusual happenings. Production costed $7 million.

A24’s drama “Sing Sing” added $226,965 during its limited run on 39 screens in key U.S. markets. The movie, which is based on the actual Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at Sing Sing maximum security prison and stars recent Oscar contender Colman Domingo, will keep playing on more screens throughout August.