Why Anne Hathaway's Verity Blew Everyone Away At The Box Office

Like a book rife with cliffhangers and twists, audiences couldn't get enough of the movie adaptation of Colleen Hoover's "Verity" over its opening weekend. While fellow new release "Digger" bombed at the box office, "Verity" topped the North American weekend with a terrific $32 million. How did it come out on top of a whole Tom Cruise joint? Watch our video above to find out.  

A 76% improvement over the opening of fellow Colleen Hoover novel adaptation "Reminders of Him" from earlier this year, "Verity" harkened back to another box office Hoover hit, "It Ends With Us." This financial victory benefited multiple parties, including Amazon MGM Studios, which has been making big inroads as a major theatrical distributor in 2026.

This success also reinforces how 2026 is the year of Anne Hathaway, following her major roles in "The Odyssey" and "The Devil Wear Prada 2." To boot, it's another encouraging sign from 2026's box office landscape that modern lucrative theatrical films don't need to be rooted in the world of PG-13 action to score heaps of moolah. The success even extended to Josh Hartnett who, after his work in "Oppenheimer" and "Trap," has truly returned to the Hollywood limelight.

It's clear "Verity" got a major box office boost from elements like its cast and a solid release date. However, there's a lot more going on with this feature's profitability beyond those two (admittedly vital) ingredients. 

Despite publishing novels since 2012, author Colleen Hoover hit another level of popularity in the zeitgeist in the early 2020s. With BookTok propelling her to new prominence, titles like the best Colleen Hoover books have become household names. Unsurprisingly, this notoriety has ensured that every movie based on a Colleen Hoover book has found some measure of box office success. "Verity" reaffirmed once more that modern moviegoers can't get enough of the stories and characters Hoover is cranking out.

If "Reminders of Him" could get $17.9 million on its domestic opening weekend despite starring relative unknowns, it shouldn't be a surprise that a Colleen Hoover adaptation anchored by Dakota Johnson and Anne Hathaway would get to such robust numbers. Plus, other recent lucrative non-Hoover trashy thrillers have likely whetted audiences appetite for more movies like "Verity." Paul Feig's campy thriller "The Housemaid," for instance, proved a sleeper hit 10 months before "Verity." The rising tides of that feature and other Colleen Hoover movie adaptations were perfect for catapulting "Verity" to major box office numbers.

With Deadline reporting that "Verity" scored 79% of its opening weekend numbers from women moviegoers, it's clearer than ever that Colleen Hoover's primary fanbase will happily show up in theaters for whatever movies draw from her literary worlds. To learn more about how "Verity" became the hit it is, watch Looper's video above.