‘It Ends With Us’ star defends Colleen Hoover as film passes $100 million at domestic box office

Justin Baldoni‘s It Ends With Us has reached a major milestone.

The romantic drama passed $100 million at the domestic box office on Tuesday, after only its 11th day of release.

This makes it the top-grossing movie of Baldoni’s career. It’s also close to being star Blake Lively‘s highest-grossing live-action movie at the domestic box office — It Ends With Us just needs to pass 2011’s Green Lantern, which earned $116.6 million, to achieve that marker.

Speaking of It Ends With Us, star Brandon Sklenar took to social media to defend the book’s author, Colleen Hoover, and “the women of this cast” amid online rumors and backlash about the film during the lead-up to its release. In a post Sklenar shared to Instagram on Tuesday, he addressed “all this stuff swirling online.”

“Colleen and the women of this cast stand for hope, perseverance, and for women choosing a better life for themselves. Vilifying the women who put so much of their heart and soul into making this film because they believe so strongly in its message seems counterproductive and detracts from what this film is about,” Sklenar wrote.

“It is, in fact, the opposite of the point … What may or may not have happened behind the scenes does not and hopefully should not detract from what our intentions were in making this film,” Sklenar continued. “It’s been disheartening to see the amount of negativity being projected online.”