Verity Budget

What Is the Budget of Verity?

Verity (2026), directed by Michael Showalter and released by Amazon MGM Studios, had a reported production budget of $40,000,000. The film adapts Colleen Hoover's 2018 novel of the same name, with a screenplay by Nick Antosca, and stars Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett.

At $40,000,000, Verity sits in the mid-budget range for a studio thriller. Principal photography ran from February to April 2025 in New York, and the film reached theaters on October 2, 2026, after a world premiere in London on September 24, 2026.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

The film's costs are weighted toward the things a psychological thriller sells on: its cast, its single-house setting and its post-production.

• Above-the-Line Talent: Hathaway, Johnson and Hartnett lead the cast, with Hathaway and Johnson also credited as a producer and executive producer respectively, so a large part of the budget sits with the people on the poster.
• Location Photography: A New York shoot of roughly three months, February through April 2025, carries crew, permits and stage or location costs in one of the most expensive production markets in the country.
• Music and Score: Volker Bertelmann is credited as composer, and a thriller depends on score to carry tension through long dialogue scenes.
• Post-Production: Editing and sound shape how the reveals land, which matters more in a mystery than in most genres.

How Does Verity's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

Book-to-screen thrillers aimed at a largely female audience have ranged widely in cost and in return. These are the closest reference points.

• It Ends with Us (2024): Budget $55,000,000 | Worldwide $350,993,761. The other Colleen Hoover adaptation at this scale, and the benchmark for what the author's audience can do at the box office. Verity opened on a smaller base but at a lower cost.
• Gone Girl (2014): Budget $61,000,000 | Worldwide $370,890,259. The standard for a mainstream marriage thriller, with a larger budget.
• The Girl on the Train (2016): Budget $45,000,000 | Worldwide $173,200,000. A bestselling thriller novel adapted at nearly the same cost, which grossed nearly four times its budget worldwide.

Verity Box Office Performance

Verity opened at number one with $32,618,776 domestically from 3,510 theaters, a per-theater average of $9,293, according to Sunday studio estimates reported by Box Office Mojo. Overseas openings added an estimated $30,000,000, for a worldwide total of $62,618,776 after its first weekend. Because these are opening-weekend estimates and the film is still in theaters, every figure below will move.

A film typically needs to earn roughly twice its production budget to cover marketing and distribution costs, so Saturation estimates Prints and Advertising at roughly the size of the production budget.

The domestic opening represents 52.1% of the worldwide total, so the film has begun with a nearly even split between the U.S. and international markets. On the opening weekend alone, Verity has recovered about 78% of its estimated total investment, and the gap to break-even is the kind a normal theatrical run can close.

At -22%, "Verity" returned roughly $0.78 for every $1 invested.

Verity Production History

An adaptation of Verity was in development before November 2020, with April Maguire and Will Honley as the early writers. Hilary Seitz rewrote the screenplay in May 2024, followed by drafts from Angela LaManna, and Nick Antosca finalized the script by November 2024.

Michael Showalter signed to direct in November 2024, and Anne Hathaway joined the same month. Josh Hartnett and Dakota Johnson were cast in December 2024, with the supporting cast confirmed in February 2025. Filming began that month in New York City and wrapped in April 2025.

The film premiered at the Curzon Mayfair Cinema in London on September 24, 2026, and opened in the United States and Canada on October 2, 2026.

Awards and Recognition

Verity has not received any major awards or nominations as of early October 2026. It debuted at a London premiere on September 24, 2026, and its release is too recent for an awards campaign to have formed.

Critical Reception

Critics were largely unconvinced. At the time of writing, Verity holds 33% on Rotten Tomatoes from 132 reviews, with an average rating of 4.9/10, and a Metacritic score of 45 out of 100 from 32 critics, which Metacritic classes as mixed or average.

Audiences were not much warmer: opening-weekend crowds gave it a C+ CinemaScore, and PostTrak reported that 50% of audiences would definitely recommend it. Reviews were split on tone rather than craft. Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com gave it three out of four stars and praised "wickedly playful" performances, and Time Out's Larushka Ivan-Zadeh gave it three out of five and called it a wild and fun ride. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian found the plot developments unsatisfying as the story unravels.