Verity Opened at No. 1, Crossed $100 Million, and Still Took a Fall

Here is a box office story with two endings, and both of them are true.

Verity, Amazon MGM Studios’ adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2018 novel, opened worldwide on 2 October 2026 at No. 1. Screen Daily’s Rentrak chart for the 2–4 October weekend puts it top of the world with $62.6 million, split between $32.6 million in North America and $30 million across international markets. Two weekends in, the film had crossed $100 million worldwide, reaching $114.4 million, per Box Office Mojo figures reported by ComingSoon.

Ending two? In that second weekend it fell hard — and lost the top spot it had just won. Information verified through 21 October 2026.

The drop, in numbers

ComingSoon’s Box Office Mojo account is unsparing. Verity earned $12 million in its second frame from 3,572 North American theatres — actually 62 more screens than its debut — taking its domestic total to $54.3 million. That is a 62.5% second-weekend drop domestically, steep by any standard, and it cost the film its No. 1 position.

Context matters, though. The production budget was $40 million. By the end of weekend two, the worldwide gross stood at nearly three times that figure. A film can fall fast and still be comfortably in profit, and this one is.

The opening also rewrote the Hoover league table. Reel 360 calls the $32.6 million domestic start the strongest theatrical debut yet for a Hoover adaptation, topping It Ends With Us, Regretting You and Reminders of Him on opening. ComingSoon is more precise: the $62.5 million worldwide opening it reports ranks as the second-best global launch among Hoover adaptations, trailing only 2024’s It Ends With Us at $95.6 million, while beating Regretting You at $23.6 million and Reminders of Him at $28.1 million. Screen Daily adds the longer view — It Ends With Us remains the brand’s ceiling by far, at $351.4 million worldwide.

Small discrepancies between outlets ($62.5 million versus $62.6 million for the opening) reflect estimate rounding in weekend reporting; the shape of the result is consistent across all three accounts.

What audiences bought, and what critics thought

The film itself runs 1 hour 57 minutes, is rated R in the United States, and is directed by Michael Showalter from a script by Nick Antosca, per InfoFlick’s release details. Dakota Johnson plays Lowen Ashleigh, a struggling writer hired to finish a bestselling series after its author is incapacitated. Anne Hathaway is Verity Crawford. Josh Hartnett plays her husband, Jeremy. Lowen moves into the family’s secluded home, finds a disturbing autobiographical manuscript, and the lines between truth, fiction and attraction start to smear.

Critics were not smitten. The film holds a 34% Rotten Tomatoes rating and a C+ CinemaScore, ComingSoon reports, while Reel 360 puts the audience score around 70%. The opening crowd skewed heavily female at 78%, with 38% of ticket buyers aged 25 to 34. Read that split carefully: the people the film was made for showed up in force, reviewed it kindly enough, and told their friends — just not in numbers that survived week two.

Overseas, the opening was broad. Screen Daily reports the film took the top spot in 30 international markets, led by the UK and Ireland at $4.5 million, Germany at $3.8 million, Brazil and Australia close behind. It also notes Verity is one of five Hathaway films released this year, with wildly varied fortunes — a useful reminder that a star’s autumn can contain both a No. 1 opening and a steep second-weekend slide in the same fortnight.

There is still runway left. Korea opens on 22 October and Japan on 6 November, ComingSoon notes, with Amazon MGM distributing in the US and Canada and Sony handling international distribution, per InfoFlick.

Analysis: The Hoover economy runs on readers, not reviews. A built-in audience that pre-sells opening weekend will also front-load a gross — everyone who needed to see it first, saw it first — which is exactly how you get a No. 1 debut and a 62.5% drop in the same breath. Neither number cancels the other. On a $40 million budget, $114.4 million in two weekends is a win Amazon MGM will take every October. The open question is legs: whether word of mouth from that 70%-ish audience score, plus Korea and Japan still to come, steadies the fall or merely slows it.

October belongs to Verity at the top either way. The argument now is only about how long it stays there.

Sources

1. ComingSoon — “Anne Hathaway’s Verity Faces Massive Box Office Drop, Loses No. 1 Spot” (13 October 2026), reporting Box Office Mojo figures: https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/2206383-verity-box-office-anne-hathaway-movie-total
2. Screen Daily — “‘Verity’ rules worldwide box office as ‘Digger’ capsizes with $20m debut” (October 2026): https://www.screendaily.com/news/verity-rules-worldwide-box-office-as-digger-capsizes-with-20m-debut/5221026.article
3. Reel 360 — “‘Digger’ buried at box office as ‘Verity’ takes No. 1” (5 October 2026): https://reel360.com/article/digger-buried-at-box-office-as-verity-takes-no-1/
4. InfoFlick — “Verity Movie 2026: Release Date, Cast, Budget, OTT & Box Office” (5 October 2026): https://infoflick.com/verity-movie-2026-release-date-cast-budget-ott-box-office/