Critically Panned Colleen Hoover Adaptation Passes Forgotten Tom Cruise Movie as it Hits First Box Office Milestone

The dust has just begun settling on a terrible October box office, and cinephiles and industry experts are piecing together why the month proved so unpopular with theatergoers. Among the reasons is, without a doubt, the poor end to the month, with this past weekend proving hugely underwhelming financially. This is thanks to the lack of studio attention to new horror movies, a genre that normally proves the most successful during spooky season. With Smile 2 and Terrifier 3 helping raise the previous year’s game, this year was left with a handful of disappointments to try and entice the public to part with their hard-earned cash.

This left the Halloween weekend to be won by Colleen Hoover’s new adaptation, Regretting You, a film with no resonance with the spooky season’s biggest date. Across the weekend, the movie earned $8.1 million from almost 3,500 theaters nationwide for a per-theater average of $2,365. This is hugely disappointing compared to last year’s Halloween weekend champion, Venom: The Last Dance, which earned a per-theater average of $6,270. Nevertheless, despite the poor weekend for the entire box office, Regretting You‘s chart-topping earnings have helped it enter the top 300 highest-grossing Paramount Pictures movies ever, overtaking a forgotten Tom Cruise-produced movie along the way: Elizabethtown.

What is ‘Regretting You’ About?

After the success of It Ends With Us last year, Regretting You returned theatergoers to the world of Hoover’s twist-heavy novels, this time led by a quartet of famous faces. Starring Allison Williams as Morgan Grant, Mckenna Grace as Clara Grant, Dave Franco as Jonah Sullivan, Mason Thames as Miller Adams, and Scott Eastwood as Chris Grant, the movie is directed by Josh Boone from a script by Susan McMartin. Although the film won the box office weekend, it has fallen to a terrible critical reception, earning an abysmal 29% from critics on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. For those yet to check it out, the film’s synopsis reads:

“Based on the bestselling book, REGRETTING YOU introduces audiences to Morgan Grant (Allison Williams) and her daughter Clara (Mckenna Grace) as they explore what’s left behind after a devastating accident reveals a shocking betrayal and forces them to confront family secrets, redefine love, and rediscover each other.”

Regretting You has surpassed a forgotten Tom Cruise project at the box office. Make sure to stay tuned to Collider for the latest box office stories.