This weekend, my wife asked me how Verity was reviewing, the Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett adaptation of the Colleen Hoover book. The answer, unfortunately, was poorly. But that was among critics, and now with Rotten Tomatoes audience scores coming in, the difference is stark.
This tracks with the anecdote that my wife loved the book and was surprised it would make a bad movie. But it appears those book-readers may be of a different mind than professional reviews. The gap is wide, with critics giving Verity a 33% Rotten Tomatoes score, while fans have scored it a 69% (hold your jokes), 36% higher. Does that track with other Colleen Hoover adaptations? Yes, all of them. Here’s the list:
- Verity (2026) – 33% critic score, 69% audience score, +36%
- Reminders of Him (2026) – 56% critic score, 87% audience score, +31%
- Regretting You (2025) – 29% critic score, 83% audience score, +54%
- It Ends With Us (2024) – 55% critic score, 87% audience score, +32%
The trend is obvious. There is not a single Colleen Hoover adaptation here with less than a 31% difference between critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, in favor of audiences. So when critics and their poor Rotten Tomatoes score tell you to stay away, at least for this class of adaptations, that is probably the wrong call, especially if you’re a fan of the source material. That said, Verity does have the lowest audience score here by a decent margin, albeit it’s still early and not all that many reviews are in yet. Here’s the synopsis of the movie/book if you’re not familiar:
“Adapted from Colleen Hoover’s best-selling novel, this seductive, psychological thriller follows renowned author Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway) and Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson), a struggling writer who relocates to the remote Crawford estate to ghostwrite for Verity. After Lowen uncovers what appears to be Verity’s chilling autobiographical notes, she wrestles with the disturbing and twisted confessions about Verity’s husband Jeremy (Josh Hartnett), and finds it hard to separate fiction from reality, manipulation from attraction, and opportunity from obsession.”
Audiences, at least so far, are not staying away. Friday’s box office numbers came in and revealed that Verity has made $15.1 million domestically and $33.6 million globally so far. Domestic projections are above $24 million for the weekend, and it may go higher than that at this rate.
Nothing else is close to it, as it earned about four times as much as second place, Resident Evil. And it’s a polar opposite story from Digger, the Tom Cruise megabomb that is set to open with less than $10 million this weekend, making it his biggest fumble in 19 years of box office returns. That too, however, is a movie that audiences seem to be enjoying more than critics (51% vs 71%). But there is no source material there nor fans to prop it up. Tom Cruise himself, in old man makeup, isn’t getting the job done. I do want to see it, though, as the discourse around the film has become just fascinating.
Verity has sold over 2 million copies by last count, meaning there is quite an existing base out there to go and see the film. In the end, stars, directors and producers can swallow negative reviews if it earns enough, and in Verity’s case, it certainly seems heading in the “big success” direction. No, it won’t be It Ends With Us and its $50 million opening weekend and $351 million global total. But it will do just fine.
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