While not exactly Barbenheimer, audiences this summer get a one-two punch of movies from the star couple Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively.
This summer movie season gets the nearly back-to-back releasing of films from power couple Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively. While Deadpool & Wolverine is clearly the event movie of the year, Reynolds has been supportive of his wife’s film by giving It Ends With Us its own little viral marketing by crashing the promotional junket. This strategy is an interesting one as It Ends With Us is a stripped-down character drama, juxtaposed to the meta madness of Deadpool. Our Tyler Nichols stated in his review, “I found It Ends With Us to be a very frustrating experience. […] The narrative consistently feels like something out of a bad romance novel. The performances and chemistry will assuredly earn it a decent box office, but as a quality film: look elsewhere.”
Although the tone of It Ends With Us doesn’t often lend itself to a summer movie, Deadline reports that the romance drama is starting its run with an impressive $7 million at the box office after Thursday previews, which started around 2 pm. The viral marketing stunt with Reynolds and Lively herself coming off of a brief voice cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine, this film has the unique distinction of getting a push from the couple’s marriage. Deadline states that “this is the first time since 1990 that husband and wife superstars had back-to-back theatrical releases that boosted each other’s; the last being Bruce Willis with Die Hard 2 and Demi Moore with Ghost.“
It Ends With Us is split with critics, with a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 58%, while audiences are much more receptive, with a 95% score. This film is also showing more leg strength than a competing big-budget film based on the popular IP, Borderlands, which has more ingredients of being a summer movie hit. However, Borderlands is getting unanimously panned by critics and audiences alike, with a shocking 7% on Rotten Tomatoes with an audience score of 48%. The film’s reception may not fair well for the potential franchise. In the review from our own Chris Bumbray, he says, “Truly, Borderlands is a disaster. With its classic rock soundtrack and eye-popping colour palette, and eccentric cast of characters, it feels like a Guardians of the Galaxy clone, albeit without any of that film’s charm or vision.”