While It Ends With Us hit theaters in the summer of 2024, the book to screen adaptation continues to make headlines thanks to the legal battle happening with its stars. The movie, which is streaming with a Netflix subscription, has become synonymous with what's happening between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively, and the the latter's lawyers recently alleged that she's lost over a hundred million dollars due to fallout related to the situation. Let's break it all down.
The legal battle began when Blake Lively filed a misconduct complaint against Wayfarer Studios. Justin Baldoni responded with a defamation suit, including a price tag of $400 million. While a judge threw out Baldoni's case, the drama isn't stopping there. Because Variety revealed that Lively's team claim she's suffered a whopping $161 million as a result of the ongoing drama.
This is quite a sum, with Lively claiming that the public's perception of her has suffered thanks to the It Ends With Us drama, leading to her businesses and career taking a financial hit. They claim she's missed out on $56.2 in "past and future earnings" related to acting gigs and speaking engagements/ endorsements. What's more, it claims that her beauty brand Blake Brown lost $49 million, while her liquor line Betty Buzz/Betty Booze, has lost $22 million.
The alleged financial losses don't even end there. Because Lively's lawyers also claim that she's suffered "$34 million in reputational harm", thanks to the online discourse that continues to surround the It Ends With us situation. While these numbers might be refuted in court, in total the sum is around $161 million.
LA Lawyer Gregory Doll spoke to Variety about the reason Lively's team claiming such a giant number in damages. He was quoted saying:
These are wish list numbers. You want to put a big enough number to get the other side concerned and want to settle.
Blake Lively is expected to go to court in March, so it seems like this story isn't going anywhere anytime soon. And while $161 million is a ton of money, it pales in comparison to the $400 million that Justin Baldoni's defamation suit claimed in damages. Although after his lawyers failed to amend that complaint it's seemingly been thrown out for good.
The legal battle surrounding It Ends With Us has been going on since December of 2024, and with Blake Lively's day in court no expected until March smart money says countless headlines will continue to follow the situation.
While Lively has some upcoming projects on the 2026 movie release list and beyond, Justin Baldoni doesn't have anything listed on his IMDb. We'll just have to wait and see how long this legal saga goes on for, and how it influences both actors' careers.
