The highly-anticipated film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s book It Ends With Us won’t screen in theaters until Aug. 9.
But, at the Texas author’s annual Book Bonanza meet-and-greet festival, held in Grapevine again this year, a select group of fans were given an exclusive, advance preview of the movie.
Hoover co-founded Book Bonanza in 2018 to give fans face-to-face time with beloved authors and use ticket sales to support charitable causes, according to the event’s site.
To mark the momentous screening, actress Blake Lively, who plays main character Lily, made an appearance. In one video re-posted on Book Bonanza’s Instagram story, she descended the steps of the auditorium to a sea of recording phones.
Lively bantered with the crowd, sharing her favorite line in the film, uttered by co-star Brandon Sklenar, who plays Atlas Corrigan. The actors did a brief re-enactment of the scene.
It Ends With Us follows a florist, Lily, after she falls in love with a charming neurosurgeon Ryle, who also has a dark, abusive side. The depiction of domestic violence has been a fixture among BookTok recommendations, a sub-community of online literary aficionados.
As of 2022, the book had sold over 4 million copies.
In a panel interview moderated by Entertainment Tonight, Lively addressed any concerns fans of the novel may have about the adaptation.
“Some people will always like a book better than a movie, and some people like a movie better than the book,” she said. “But I think that we just did our best to honor the book and honor the fans.
“This story resonated with so many people, so there’s a great responsibility that comes with that,” she added.
On social media, fans raved about the experience.
“The movie premiere for It Ends with Us was crazy good,” one user said. “Unexpected, none of us knew we were [watching the screening].”
In another video recapping the event, two people called the movie “beautifully done.” They showed paraphernalia including tissues with the movie name, flowers, and chocolate treats.
“I’ll be seeing it again,” one of the pair said.
