Inside The Colleen Hoover Cinematic Universe

Colleen Hoover, a prolific romance novelist, has discovered that movie production moves much slower than publishing. In her first decade, the 46-year-old author released 24 novels, becoming the best-selling author globally in 2022 with titles like *It Ends With Us* and *Heart Bones*. She spent four years co-writing and producing a film adaptation of *Reminders of Him*. During this period, her novels became box office hits, with *It Ends With Us* grossing $350 million worldwide in 2024 and *Regretting You* earning $90 million in late 2025. Her fourth adaptation, *Verity*, is set for release this October. Hoover's deep involvement in these film projects led to a three-year hiatus from writing new books. While her royalties in 2025 were estimated at $4 million, she believes a new novel could have doubled or tripled that income. However, she is driven by a desire to see her characters come to life and create adaptations that are more faithful to the source material. Initially, Hoover sold rights for seven-figure sums, not expecting much to come of it. But her books exploded during the pandemic, with US sales soaring from 1.9 million copies in 2021 to 14.3 million in 2022, largely due to TikTok's BookTok community. Realizing her limited input as her books were fast-tracked for production, Hoover partnered with producer Lauren Levine to launch Heart Bones Entertainment, developing her material in-house. This allowed them to maintain creative control and avoid issues like those that plagued *It Ends With Us*. The success of *It Ends With Us* helped them pitch *Reminders of Him* to Universal Pictures for a wide theatrical release. Hoover now joins authors like John Grisham and Stephen King whose adaptations are sold on their names, becoming part of a wave of female-led fiction adaptations. Her return to publishing in January with *Woman Down* became an instant number one best-seller. Though she considers herself a novelist first, Hoover is eager to continue in film and even wants to write something original for the screen.