‘Regretting You’: Is the Film Adaptation in the Works?

The Regretting You film adaptation is no longer in the works, because it already exists. Paramount released Josh Boone’s version of Colleen Hoover’s 2019 novel in theaters on October 24, 2025, with Allison Williams and McKenna Grace as the mother and daughter at its center. It has since moved to digital, so you can watch it at home tonight.

Key Takeaways
– Status: Released. Regretting You opened in U.S. theaters on October 24, 2025, from Paramount Pictures.
– Director: Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars), from a screenplay by Susan McMartin.
– Leads: Allison Williams (Morgan Grant), McKenna Grace (Clara Grant), Mason Thames (Miller Adams), Dave Franco (Jonah Sullivan).
– Source: Colleen Hoover’s 2019 novel, published by Montlake.
– Where to watch: Digital rental and purchase on the major storefronts. As a Paramount release, its subscription home is Paramount+, not Netflix.
– Verdict: A sincere, soapy family weepie that works best for people who already love Hoover’s books.

So Is a Regretting You Movie Happening? It Already Happened

Search interest often trails reality by a few months, which explains the question. Paramount announced the adaptation in August 2024, began production in Atlanta in March 2025, and kept a fall 2025 release date. The movie opened on October 24, 2025, in a crowded October that included Black Phone 2, which had opened one week earlier on October 17.

That timing produced a fun bit of trivia. Mason Thames, who plays Clara’s love interest Miller, also stars in Black Phone 2, so he had two very different movies in theaters at once. The same teenager was fending off the Grabber on one screen and making lovesick short films on the next.

If you were waiting on news about a Regretting You adaptation, the wait is over. What follows is everything you need to decide whether to watch it, where to find it, and how it stacks up against the book.

Regretting You at a Glance

What the Story Is About (No Ending Spoilers)

Hoover built the novel around a mother and a daughter who cannot stop misreading each other. The movie keeps that spine.

It opens in the past. Two sisters, Morgan and Jenny, are teenagers in a tight foursome with their boyfriends, Chris and Jonah. Morgan gets pregnant at 17, marries Chris, and builds a careful, responsible adult life around their daughter, Clara. Jonah drifts away. Years later, he comes back into the picture, and Jenny and Jonah have a son of their own.

Then the story jumps forward. Clara is now a teenager who wants to act, chafes at her mother’s rules, and falls for Miller Adams, a would-be filmmaker who lives with and cares for his grandfather. Morgan sees her own rushed youth in her daughter and clamps down hard.

The inciting event arrives early and hits like a truck. Chris and Jenny die together in a car accident, and the circumstances force Morgan and Jonah to confront a betrayal neither of them saw coming. Morgan has to grieve a husband and a sister while keeping a secret from a daughter who is already furious with her. Jonah has to raise a small child while questioning everything about the past decade.

That is the real engine of the story. It is less a romance than a study of how grief makes people say the worst possible thing at the worst possible time. The romance subplots (Clara and Miller, and the long-simmering pull between Morgan and Jonah) sit on top of that foundation.

Cast & Crew

Paramount spent real money on faces here, and the casting is the strongest argument for the movie.

Behind the Camera

Josh Boone is a logical choice. He directed Stuck in Love (2012) and then The Fault in Our Stars (2014), the John Green adaptation that proved a sad YA book could become a massive hit if you cast it well and let the tears flow. He later made The New Mutants (2020) and co-ran The Stand for CBS All Access, now Paramount+. His instincts lean toward earnest emotion over irony, which suits Hoover’s material.

Susan McMartin, a veteran TV writer whose credits include Mom and Two and a Half Men, adapted the screenplay. That sitcom-adjacent background shows in the dialogue, which favors quick, quotable exchanges over long silences.

Who Stands Out

McKenna Grace carries the film. She has been playing older than her age since Gifted, and here she gives Clara the specific, volcanic self-righteousness of a 16-year-old who is half right about everything. Allison Williams has the harder job. Morgan spends much of the movie lying to protect her daughter, which could make her unbearable, and Williams keeps her sympathetic by playing the exhaustion underneath the control.

Dave Franco is the quiet surprise. He has spent the last few years proving he is more than James’s little brother, most recently opposite his wife Alison Brie in the body-horror romance Together. As Jonah, he is warm and wounded, and his scenes with Williams have the grown-up chemistry the movie needs.

Mason Thames is charming as Miller, though the script gives him the thinnest character. He is the boy who films everything and says the right thing, more of a type than a person.

Book vs. Movie: What Changed

Every Hoover adaptation lives or dies on how it handles the book’s interior voice. The novel alternates first-person chapters between Morgan and Clara, so you spend half the book inside the head of each woman. That device is hard to translate.

The biggest loss is Morgan’s head space. In the book, you understand exactly why she keeps the truth from Clara, because you live with her reasoning. On screen, that reasoning gets compressed into a few speeches, so some viewers will find her choices harder to forgive.

The biggest gain is the past timeline. Seeing Morgan, Jenny, Chris, and Jonah as teenagers gives the later betrayal weight. The novel tells you these four were inseparable. The movie shows you.

Fans who want the paternity question handled as the book handles it should know that the film keeps the central doubt intact. The specifics are covered in the FAQ below, under a clear spoiler warning.

Critics vs. Audiences: The Familiar Hoover Split

If you followed the reception of It Ends with Us in 2024, the response to Regretting You will look familiar. Professional critics were largely unimpressed, and the Rotten Tomatoes critics score landed in rotten territory. Audiences, especially the readers who pushed Hoover’s books to the top of the bestseller lists, were far kinder, and the audience score ran well ahead of the critics’ number.

The critical complaints cluster around the script. Reviewers knocked the melodrama, the convenient coincidences, and the way the dialogue spells out emotions the actors are already playing. The praise clustered around the cast, with Grace singled out most often.

The online fan conversation, including the review thread on Reddit’s r/movies, ran along the same lines. People argued about whether Morgan was sympathetic, praised Grace and Franco, and fought over book-versus-movie changes. Very few people walked out indifferent, which is a sign the movie hit the nerve it was aiming for.

Our Take

This is a movie that knows exactly what it is. It is a tearjerker built to be watched with a friend who has read the book and a box of tissues within reach. Boone stages the big emotional beats with total sincerity, and the cast commits to every one of them.

It is also too long, too tidy in its final act, and frequently on the nose. Several scenes exist only so a character can explain a feeling out loud. The soundtrack does a lot of work it should not have to do.

For a Hoover reader, it is a solid adaptation with a better cast than the material strictly deserves. For anyone who wants subtle family drama, this is the wrong movie, and something like Manchester by the Sea (2016) handles sudden grief with far more restraint.

Rating: 3 out of 5. Strong performances, a schmaltzy script, and real emotional payoff if you are willing to meet it halfway.

Where to Watch Regretting You Right Now

The theatrical run is over in most places, though repertory and second-run houses sometimes pick up a recent crowd-pleaser for a matinee slot. At home, your options look like this.

Two practical tips. First, digital prices tend to drop a few weeks after a film’s premium launch, so patience saves money if you plan to buy. Second, international availability varies. Constantin Film, Paramount’s partner on the project, handles distribution in some European territories, and streaming deals outside the U.S. and Canada can differ by country. Check your local Paramount+ library or a regional storefront before you pay.

Is Regretting You Worth Watching?

That depends on who you are, so here is a direct breakdown.

Watch it if you have read the book, liked It Ends with Us, or love mother-daughter dramas like Lady Bird (2017) with the edges sanded off. It is also a strong pick for a parent-and-teen movie night, because the film genuinely gives both perspectives a fair hearing, and that can spark a real conversation afterward. The PG-13 rating keeps it accessible for older teens.

Skip it if melodrama makes you roll your eyes, or if you prefer romance with some bite. Viewers who found The Fault in Our Stars manipulative will have the same problem here, since Boone’s style has not changed much.

Try it on a rental if you are curious about the cast. Grace and Franco both do work worth seeing, and a rental is a low-risk way to judge for yourself.

If You Liked It, Watch These Next

• The Fault in Our Stars (2014): Boone’s earlier YA weepie, and the clearest template for this film.
• It Ends with Us (2024): The Hoover adaptation that grossed more than $350 million worldwide and made studios take her catalog seriously.
• Flipped (2010): The director Rob Reiner‘s gentle, dual-perspective teen romance, which handles alternating viewpoints more gracefully than most.
• Stuck in Love (2012): Boone’s debut, another tangled family drama about writers, romance, and old wounds.

What’s Next for Colleen Hoover on Screen

Regretting You is one piece of a larger wave. After It Ends with Us became a box office giant in 2024, studios lined up for the rest of Hoover’s shelf.

Verity is the one to watch. It is Hoover’s darkest book, a psychological thriller rather than a romance, and the cast suggests Amazon MGM is aiming for something closer to Gone Girl than a weepie. Release dates shift often, so treat the 2026 dates as targets rather than guarantees.

Reminders of Him is closer in spirit to Regretting You. It follows a young mother released from prison who tries to reconnect with the daughter she has never been allowed to meet, so expect the same territory of grief, guilt, and second chances. Hoover herself took a bigger creative role on that one, co-writing the screenplay.

The pattern across all four is clear. Hoover adaptations draw a devoted, mostly female audience that turns out in theaters regardless of reviews, and studios are betting that loyalty holds. The real test will be whether Verity, a genre departure, can win over people who have never cracked open one of her books.

FAQ

Is the Regretting You movie out yet?

Yes. Paramount released Regretting You in U.S. theaters on October 24, 2025. It is now available to rent or buy on digital storefronts, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home, and Paramount+ is its subscription streaming home.

What is the book Regretting You about?

Colleen Hoover’s 2019 novel follows Morgan Grant, who became a mother at 17, and her teenage daughter Clara, told in alternating chapters from each woman’s point of view. When Morgan’s husband Chris and her sister Jenny die in the same car accident, Morgan and Jenny’s husband Jonah discover a painful secret. The book tracks how grief, a hidden betrayal, and Clara’s first serious romance push mother and daughter to their breaking point before they find their way back to each other.

Is Regretting You on Netflix?

No, not in the United States. Regretting You is a Paramount Pictures release, so its subscription streaming home is Paramount+. You can also rent or buy it digitally. Availability in other countries depends on local distribution deals, so check your regional services.

Is Regretting You worth watching?

It is worth watching if you enjoy Colleen Hoover’s books or emotional family dramas like The Fault in Our Stars. The cast, especially McKenna Grace and Dave Franco, is the main draw. Critics found the script melodramatic, and they have a point, but audiences who came for a good cry mostly got one. We give it 3 out of 5.

Who was the father of the baby in Regretting You?

Spoiler warning. Clara’s father is Chris, Morgan’s husband, whom Morgan dated as a teenager. The bigger question surrounds Elijah, the young son of Jenny and Jonah. Once the affair between Chris and Jenny comes out, Jonah fears Elijah might be Chris’s child. In the novel, a paternity test confirms that Jonah is Elijah’s biological father, and Jonah makes clear that he would have raised Elijah as his own regardless of the result.

Who plays Miller in Regretting You?

Mason Thames plays Miller Adams, the aspiring filmmaker Clara falls for. Thames broke out in The Black Phone (2022) and played Hiccup in the live-action How to Train Your Dragon (2025). He also stars in Black Phone 2, which opened one week before Regretting You, so he had two films in theaters at the same time in October 2025.