This weekend my wife asked me how Truth was reviewing Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett’s adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s book. Unfortunately, the response was poor. But that was part of the criticism, and now with Rotten Tomatoes audience scores, the difference is stark.
It tells the anecdote that my wife loved the book and was surprised that it made a bad movie. But it seems that these book readers have a different opinion than professional reviewers. The gap is wide, with critics giving Truth a 33% Rotten Tomatoes score, while fans got it at 69% (stop your jokes), 36% higher. Does this match other Colleen Hoover adaptations? Yes, all of them. Here is the list:
- Truth (2026) – 33% critical rating, 69% audience rating, +36%
- Reminders of him (2026) – 56% critical rating, 87% audience rating, +31%
- Regret you (2025) – 29% critical rating, 83% audience rating, +54%
- It ends with us (2024) – 55% critical rating, 87% audience rating, +32%
The trend is obvious. There’s not a single Colleen Hoover adaptation here with less than a 31% difference between critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, in favor of the audience. So when critics and their poor Rotten Tomatoes score tell you to stay away, at least for this class of adaptations, it’s probably not the right decision, especially if you’re a fan of the source material. That said, Truth has the lowest audience score here by a decent margin, although it’s still early and there aren’t many reviews yet. Here’s the synopsis of the movie/book if you’re unfamiliar:
“Adapted from the bestselling novel by Colleen Hoover, this seductive psychological thriller follows acclaimed author Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway) and Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson), a struggling writer who moves to the secluded Crawford estate to write ghostwriters for Verity. After Lowen discovers what appears to be Verity’s chilling autobiographical notes, she struggles with the disturbing and twisted confessions about Verity’s husband, Jeremy (Josh Hartnett), and struggles to separating fiction from reality, manipulation from attraction and opportunity from obsession.”
The public, at least so far, is not staying away. Friday’s box office figures are in and revealed that Truth has earned $15.1 million domestically and $33.6 million globally so far. National projections are above $24 million for the weekend, and they could exceed that at this rate.
Nothing else comes close, having won about four times as much as second place, Resident Evil. And it’s a story diametrically opposed to that of Excavatorthe Tom Cruise megabomb that is expected to open with less than $10 million this weekend, making it its biggest failure in 19 years of box office returns. But it is also a film that the public seems to appreciate more than the critics (51% against 71%). But there is no source material or fans to support it. Tom Cruise himself, made up as an old man, doesn’t do the job. I want to see it, though, because the discourse around the film has become nothing short of fascinating.
Truth has sold over 2 million copies at last count, which means there’s a pretty big base out there to go see the film. Ultimately, stars, directors, and producers can swallow negative reviews if they get enough money from them, and Truth In this case, it certainly seems to be heading in the “big hit” direction. No, it won’t It ends with us and its $50 million opening weekend and $351 million worldwide total. But it will do just fine.
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