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

Regretting You is out, and you can stream it today. Paramount released Josh Boone’s adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s 2019 novel in theaters on October 24, 2025, and it has been streaming on Paramount+ since December 23, 2025, with Blu-ray, DVD and 4K discs following on February 17, 2026. This guide covers where to watch it, how it performed, what changed from the book, and whether it deserves your evening.

Key Facts at a Glance

By the Numbers: A Small Movie That Made Real Money

The story of Regretting You’s release is a split between the people who review movies for a living and the people who buy tickets.

A worldwide gross of roughly $90.5 million against a $25 million budget is a clear win for a mid-budget drama with no franchise attached. That is more than three and a half times its production cost, in a fall corridor where original adult-skewing dramas routinely vanish after one weekend.

The Rotten Tomatoes split tells you who the movie was built for. Critics settled in the high 20s, which places it firmly in Rotten territory. Verified audiences on the Popcornmeter gave it 85 percent. That gap of more than 50 points is the Hoover pattern in its purest form: reviewers object to the melodrama, and readers show up for exactly that melodrama.

The CinemaScore of B is the more sobering number. Opening-night audiences polled by CinemaScore usually grade crowd-pleasers in the A range, so a B suggests some viewers left more divided than the Popcornmeter implies. Our read is that book fans loved it and their plus-ones were less sure.

How it compares to It Ends with Us

Context matters here. It Ends with Us (2024), the first major Hoover adaptation, grossed about $351 million worldwide and turned her backlist into a hot property overnight. Regretting You earned roughly a quarter of that. It was never going to replicate a cultural event that had Blake Lively, a heavily publicized press tour and a pent-up fanbase behind it. What it did prove is that a Hoover title without that level of hype can still turn a healthy profit, which is exactly what studios wanted to know before committing to the next batch.

Where to Watch Regretting You Right Now

The theatrical run has ended in most markets, so home viewing is the main route. Paramount+ is the movie’s subscription home, and streaming guides also list it through several live TV and channel services, most of which carry Paramount+ content as an add-on or bundle.

Subscribe, rent or buy?

Prices on digital storefronts shift often, so check the listing on the day you buy. The decision itself is simple:

• Subscribe to Paramount+ if you also want The Fault in Our Stars, other Paramount releases, or a month of browsing. One month of the cheapest tier generally costs about the same as a premium rental.
• Rent if you only plan to watch it once and don’t want another recurring bill.
• Buy if you rewatch comfort movies, or if you want the bonus features, which are more complete on disc.

Watching outside the U.S.

Availability varies by country. Constantin Film, Paramount’s production partner, handles distribution in German-speaking territories, which is part of why the world premiere took place in Berlin. In many other markets the film follows Paramount’s usual path to Paramount+ and local digital stores, but release windows and licensing deals differ. Some viewers use VPNs to reach another country’s library; that typically breaks streaming services’ terms of use and can get an account flagged. Check your local Paramount+ catalog or a regional storefront first.

Blu-ray, DVD and 4K Ultra HD

Paramount released Regretting You on Blu-ray, DVD and 4K Ultra HD on February 17, 2026. If you collect Hoover adaptations or want the extras, disc is the most complete version available.

Bonus content includes:

• Deleted scenes, which matter more than usual here, since the theatrical cut compresses a lot of the novel’s interior material
• “Adapting You,” a featurette on turning the book into a screenplay
• “Love in Loss,” focused on the grief at the center of the story
• “A Life Without Regret,” covering the film’s themes and characters

The 4K disc is the pick for anyone with a capable TV, since Tim Orr’s photography leans on warm, golden-hour Southern light that benefits from the extra color range.

What the Story Is About (No Ending Spoilers)

Hoover built the novel around a mother and a daughter who keep misreading each other. The movie keeps that spine.

It opens in the past. 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 adult life around their daughter, Clara. Jonah drifts away. Years later he returns, and he and Jenny have a young son, Elijah.

Then the story jumps forward. Clara is 16, wants a career in acting, resents her mother’s rules, and falls for Miller Adams, an aspiring filmmaker who lives with and cares for his grandfather. Morgan sees her own rushed youth in her daughter and clamps down.

The inciting event arrives early and hits hard. Chris and Jenny die together in a car accident, and the circumstances force Morgan and Jonah to confront a betrayal neither saw coming. Morgan has to grieve a husband and a sister while hiding the truth from a daughter who is already furious with her. Jonah has to raise a small child while questioning the last decade of his life.

That is the real engine of the film. It is less a romance than a study of how grief makes people say the worst possible thing at the worst possible moment. The love stories, Clara and Miller and the long-buried pull between Morgan and Jonah, sit on top of that foundation.

Cast & Crew

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

Behind the camera

Josh Boone (director) is a logical fit. He made Stuck in Love (2012) and then The Fault in Our Stars (2014), the John Green adaptation that proved a sad YA novel could become a major hit if you cast it well and let the tears flow. He later directed The New Mutants (2020) and co-ran The Stand for what is now Paramount+. His instincts favor earnest emotion over irony, which suits Hoover.

Susan McMartin (screenplay) is a television veteran whose credits include Mom and Two and a Half Men. That sitcom background shows in the dialogue, which favors quick, quotable exchanges over long silences.

Tim Orr (cinematographer) is best known as David Gordon Green’s longtime director of photography. He gives the film a sun-soaked, lived-in look that keeps the melodrama grounded in a believable small town.

Nathaniel Walcott (music) reunites with Boone after co-scoring The Fault in Our Stars. His score is restrained, but the movie leans heavily on a pop-forward soundtrack that does a lot of emotional signposting.

Executive producers include Colleen Hoover herself, along with Allison Williams, Dave Franco and McKenna Grace. Hoover’s involvement mirrors her role on It Ends with Us and explains how closely the film tracks the book’s major beats.

Who stands out

McKenna Grace carries the film. She has played older than her age since Gifted, and here she gives Clara the volcanic self-righteousness of a teenager who is half right about everything. Her scenes with her drama teacher and her student theater friends are some of the loosest, most natural moments in the movie.

Allison Williams has the harder job. Morgan spends much of the story lying to protect her daughter, which could make her unbearable. Williams keeps her sympathetic by playing the exhaustion under the control.

Dave Franco is the quiet surprise. Fresh off the body-horror romance Together opposite his wife Alison Brie, he plays Jonah as warm and wounded, and his scenes with Williams supply the grown-up chemistry the film needs.

Mason Thames is charming as Miller, though the script gives him the thinnest character: the boy who films everything and always says the right thing. A bit of trivia: Thames also starred in Black Phone 2, which opened October 17, 2025, one week before Regretting You. For a stretch that fall, the same young actor was fending off the Grabber on one screen and making lovesick short films on the next.

How Regretting You Got Made: A Timeline

The adaptation took six years to reach theaters.

Todd’s involvement makes sense. She turned her own fan-driven romance series into a durable film franchise, and she understood early that Hoover’s readership could fill theaters. The slow road from her 2019 deal to an August 2024 studio announcement shows how much It Ends with Us changed the math. Once that film became a blockbuster, Hoover projects moved from development to production quickly.

The Official Trailer

Paramount dropped the official trailer on August 5, 2025, and it is on the studio’s official YouTube channel. It is a fair preview: it sets up the mother-daughter conflict, teases the crash, and hints at the betrayal without spelling it out. If you have not read the book, it gives away a little more of the first act than we would like, so skip it if you want to go in cold.

Book vs. Movie: What Changed

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

The biggest loss is Morgan’s headspace. In the book, you understand exactly why she keeps the truth from Clara, because you live inside 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.

The central paternity doubt survives intact. Details are in the spoiler section of the FAQ below.

Critics’ Reviews vs. Audience Reviews

If you followed It Ends with Us, this reaction will look familiar.

What critics said. With a Tomatometer in the 27 to 29 percent range, the consensus was negative. Complaints clustered around the script: the melodrama, convenient coincidences, and dialogue that spells out emotions the actors are already playing. Praise clustered around the cast, with Grace singled out most often and Franco close behind.

What audiences said. The 85 percent Popcornmeter reflects readers who wanted the book’s big moments on screen and got them. Online fan discussion, including review threads on Reddit’s r/movies and Hoover fan communities across social media, argued about whether Morgan was sympathetic, praised Grace and Franco, and fought over book-versus-movie changes. Very few people walked away indifferent, which suggests the movie hit the nerve it aimed for.

The CinemaScore B is the tiebreaker. It shows that general audiences, not just fans, liked it without loving it.

Our Rating

This is a movie that knows what 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 aloud, and the soundtrack does work the script should have done.

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; Manchester by the Sea (2016) handles sudden grief with far more restraint.

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

Is Regretting You Worth Watching?

Watch it if you have read the book, liked It Ends with Us, or enjoy mother-daughter dramas like Lady Bird (2017) with the edges sanded off. It is a strong pick for a parent-and-teen movie night, because the film gives both perspectives a fair hearing, and that can start a real conversation afterward. The PG-13 content (grief, infidelity, teen romance, some language) keeps it suitable for older teens.

Skip it if melodrama makes you roll your eyes or you want romance with bite. If The Fault in Our Stars felt manipulative to you, Boone’s style has not changed.

Stream it on Paramount+ if you are curious about the cast. Grace and Franco both do work worth seeing, and a subscription you may already have is the lowest-risk way to judge for yourself.

What to Watch Next

• The Fault in Our Stars (2014): Boone’s earlier YA weepie and the clearest template for this film. Also on Paramount+ in many regions.
• It Ends with Us (2024): The $351 million Hoover adaptation that made studios take her catalog seriously.
• Flipped (2010): Rob Reiner‘s gentle teen romance, which handles alternating viewpoints more gracefully than most films attempt.
• Lady Bird (2017): The sharper, funnier version of a mother and daughter who love each other and cannot stop fighting.

Upcoming Colleen Hoover adaptations

• Reminders of Him (2026): Universal’s adaptation, directed by Vanessa Caswill and starring Maika Monroe as a woman returning home after prison to reconnect with the daughter she has never met, with Tyriq Withers as the man caught between her and his loyalty to the past. Universal dated it for March 13, 2026.
• Verity (2026): Amazon MGM Studios’ take on Hoover’s darkest thriller, directed by Michael Showalter. Dakota Johnson plays Lowen, a struggling writer hired to finish a bestselling author’s series; Anne Hathaway plays Verity; Josh Hartnett plays her husband, Jeremy. Expect a very different tone from Regretting You.

What to read next

• Verity: A psychological thriller built around a manuscript that may or may not be a confession. Read it before the movie arrives.
• November 9: A romance in which two people agree to meet on the same date every year. Closest in structure to Regretting You’s time jumps.
• Ugly Love: A steamier, more painful romance with a dual timeline, for readers who wanted more of the Morgan and Jonah storyline.
• Reminders of Him: Another story about parenthood, guilt and second chances, and the most natural follow-up to this one.

FAQ

What is the book Regretting You about?

Colleen Hoover’s 2019 novel follows Morgan Grant, who got pregnant at 17 and built her whole life around her daughter, and Clara, now 16 and desperate to escape her mother’s control. When Morgan’s husband and sister die in the same car accident, Morgan uncovers a betrayal she must hide from Clara while both of them grieve. The chapters alternate between mother and daughter, so readers see each misunderstanding from both sides.

Is Regretting You on Netflix?

No, not in the U.S. Regretting You is a Paramount release, so its subscription home is Paramount+, where it has streamed since December 23, 2025. You can also rent or buy it on Apple TV, Prime Video and Fandango at Home, or watch through live TV services such as Philo, fuboTV and YouTube TV. Netflix availability abroad depends on local licensing deals, so check your country’s catalog.

Is Regretting You worth watching?

Yes, if you are a Hoover reader or want a cathartic family drama. Its Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 27 to 29 percent reflects real script problems, but the 85 percent audience score and strong performances from McKenna Grace and Dave Franco make it a definitely worthwhile Paramount+ watch for its target crowd. Skeptics of melodrama should pass.

When did Regretting You come out on Blu-ray and DVD?

February 17, 2026, on Blu-ray, DVD and 4K Ultra HD, with deleted scenes and three featurettes.

How much did Regretting You make at the box office?

About $90.5 million worldwide against a production budget of roughly $25 million.

Spoiler FAQ

Warning: the answers below reveal major plot points and the ending.

Is Chris the dad of the baby in Regretting You?

This is the question that drives Jonah’s arc. Once it comes out that Chris and Jenny were having an affair, Jonah has to face the possibility that Elijah, the son he has been raising, is biologically Chris’s. The story treats the biology as less important than the choice: Jonah decides that he is Elijah’s father in every way that matters, and the film keeps that resolution from the book. Clara’s paternity is never in question; she is Chris and Morgan’s daughter.

How is the affair revealed?

The accident is the reveal. Chris and Jenny die together somewhere neither should have been, with a cover story that falls apart once Morgan and Jonah compare notes. The film shows this through confrontations and evidence rather than Morgan’s slow internal realization in the novel, so the betrayal lands faster and harder on screen.

Does Clara find out the truth?

Yes. For much of the story, Clara misreads the closeness between Morgan and Jonah and assumes her mother is the one betraying the family, which deepens their fight. When the truth about Chris and Jenny finally comes out, Clara has to revise how she sees both her father and her aunt, and that is the turning point that lets mother and daughter start to repair things.

How does Regretting You end?

The ending is hopeful. Morgan and Clara reconcile, with Morgan loosening her grip and Clara understanding why her mother tried to shield her. Clara and Miller stay together, and Morgan and Jonah finally act on the feelings they buried as teenagers, building a new family with Elijah. The film wraps these threads more neatly than the book, which is one of the main critical complaints.

How does the movie handle the book’s dual point of view?

It drops first-person narration entirely and replaces it with crosscutting between Morgan’s and Clara’s storylines, plus an expanded past timeline. You lose some of Morgan’s private reasoning, but you gain a much clearer picture of the four friends before everything went wrong. Miller’s camera footage also stands in for some of Clara’s interior voice, which is the film’s cleverest adaptation choice.