"It Ends with Us," the first big screen adaptation of a Colleen Hoover novel, hit Chinese theaters on Aug. 30, having already achieved box office success in global markets.

A still from "It Ends with Us." [Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment]

Based on a romance novel, the film stars Blake Lively alongside Brandon Sklenar and Justin Baldoni, who is also the film's director. The film's plot focuses on Lily Bloom, a woman who overcomes a traumatic childhood to start a new life in Boston. When her first love suddenly comes back into her life, a relationship with a charming but abusive neurosurgeon is upended, causing the protagonist to make an impossible choice for her future.

"By the time I decided to helm the film adaptation, 'It Ends with Us' had become the second-best rated romance of all time on Goodreads," recalled director and actor Justin Baldoni. "Fans really fell in love with Lily. When I read the book, it was clear that there was so much more to it than just a romance. This is a book about the human experience."

Blake Lively, known for her role in the hit television series "Gossip Girl" and a producer on the film, knew from the start that she was working with very special material. 

"I just fell in love with Lily," Lively said. "I wanted to tell her story because her emotional roadmap was so clear to me, yet there are so many ways she could be portrayed. I knew if I took her on, I would make sure she wasn't a delicate flower, but a woman with both feet firmly on the ground. Someone in her skin. "

She added, "I thought it was important to see someone you think is settled in themselves get lost. It makes you realize you never really know what people are going through. "

Producer Jamey Heath carefully considered how to balance the many themes in Lily's story. "On one hand, we were making a movie about ending a cycle of abuse; on the other, we were making a movie about love," he said. "We had to honor that paradox from the first day we began work on the film."

The original book was first published in 2016, with Baldoni initially contacting Hoover in 2019 to collaborate on a movie adaptation. In 2022, "It Ends with Us" gained traction among the BookTok community, a subgroup of users on the social media platform TikTok whose content covers books and the publishing industry. Since becoming popular on social media, the novel has spent 140 weeks on The New York Times Bestseller List and has sold nearly 10 million copies. A sequel titled "It Starts with Us" was published in October 2022. 

A Chinese poster for "It Ends with Us." [Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment]

Overall, the filmmakers stayed true to what made the book such a phenomenon. "We were thinking about the fans throughout," said Baldoni. "Colleen has crafted such a beloved story, and it has created such waves culturally that we wanted to stay true to her vision."

With its themes of healing, redemption and hope, Lily's story resonates with readers and viewers even if her experiences don't parallel their own. "What's beautiful about this film is that it captures every color of human emotion," said Lively. "There's levity, joy, humor, hope, pain, tragedy, violence, trauma, sadness, and exaltation. Life, death, love, and loss — a kaleidoscope of the human experience."

The movie adaptation of "It Ends with Us" debuted in numerous markets globally earlier in August, grossing $286 million worldwide by Sunday against a production budget of $25 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

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