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Regretting You posts a cautious start
Colleen Hoover's second film adaptation has arrived in theaters with a deliberately understated opening. Constantin Films' Regretting You added roughly $10 million from international markets this weekend, pushing its global haul to about $22.85 million against a reported $30 million production budget. The drama, led by Allison Williams and Mckenna Grace as a mother and daughter navigating the fallout of a catastrophic accident, skewed strongly female in its audience (around 80%), and earned a "B" on CinemaScore — solid, if not sensational.
The movie’s early returns are best read in context. Hoover’s prior adaptation, It Ends With Us, became a surprise crossover hit and eventually reached roughly $344 million worldwide, proving that the author’s romance-tinged, emotionally charged stories can translate into major box office success. If Regretting You maintains legs in theaters, it could confirm Hoover as a dependable source of commercially viable literary adaptations; publishers and studios are already racing to adapt more of her catalogue, with Verity and Reminders of Him reportedly moving toward screens in 2026.
Blockbuster struggles and tidy specialty openings
Disney’s sci-fi spectacle Tron: Ares continued to limp through its third weekend, collecting roughly $4.7 million from about 2,940 venues. With a production budget north of $180 million and a global total near $123 million so far, the film’s performance highlights how even visually ambitious tentpoles can struggle to justify their enormous price tags in today’s theatrical climate.
In a different register, Neon’s Shelby Oaks debuted at No. 7 with about $2.3 million from 1,823 locations. The supernatural thriller — built around the disappearance of an amateur ghost hunter and YouTube star in an abandoned town — arrived with a C+ on CinemaScore. That grade is common in horror, where audiences often split between genre fans and mainstream viewers; mixed word-of-mouth could limit Shelby Oaks’ long-term box office trajectory, but strong niche interest and late-night screenings may extend its run.
Meanwhile, Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone’s Bugonia launched in limited release to encouraging per-theater numbers: roughly $690,000 from 17 venues, averaging about $40,588 each. Stone plays a formidable CEO kidnapped by conspiracy theorists convinced she’s an alien sent to destroy Earth — a premise that sits comfortably in Lanthimos’ catalogue of absurd, darkly comic worlds alongside films like The Lobster and Poor Things. Focus Features will test Bugonia’s commercial reach with a planned nationwide expansion next weekend.
Industry pulse: sliding yet hopeful toward the holidays
This weekend’s box office was down about 22% compared with the same frame last year, when a high-profile superhero sequel opened big. Across the year, domestic receipts are only modestly ahead of last year but still trail pre-pandemic levels by roughly a fifth, according to Comscore. That gap helps explain why studios are counting on the traditional holiday funnel — Thanksgiving and the December slate — to revive momentum. Big event films like Universal’s Wicked: For Good, Disney’s Zootopia 2, and James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash are all expected to fuel a late-year correction in attendance.
"Hollywood has to be patient right now," says film critic Anna Kovacs. "Audiences are choosier and more segmented — a book adaptation with a built-in fanbase can still surprise, while oversized tentpoles must deliver value beyond spectacle to win repeat viewings." Her perspective captures the split-screen reality facing distributors: targeted, faithful adaptations and daring limited releases can thrive even as megabudgets face harder scrutiny.
What to watch next
For movie fans tracking trends, the current weekend underscores two reliable points: adaptations with passionate readerships can be durable, and genre films still travel differently (horror thrives on communal reactions; prestige indie fare can bank on per-theater strength). Keep an eye on weekly holdovers and next month’s blockbuster calendar — the industry will be looking for confirmation that the holiday multiplex can resurrect the box office figures studios need.
Whether Regretting You becomes another Hoover-sized breakout or a steady mid-tier success will depend on word-of-mouth, streaming windows, and how loudly its core audience rallies. Either outcome tells us something about modern moviegoing: fervent fan communities still move tickets, but the marketplace rewards stories that reach beyond a single demographic.
Source: variety
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