It Ends With Us : All Filming Locations Explained

‘It Ends with Us’, starring Blake Lively as Lily Bloom, adapts Colleen Hoover’s eponymous 2016 novel. Under the direction of Justin Baldoni, this intense love drama film centers on ambitious Lily Bloom, who experienced a horrific upbringing. She moves to Boston and begins again to start her own company. In addition to being committed to making her florist store successful, she falls in love with the charming neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid. However, when Lily comes to know Ryle better and falls in love with him, she detects a familiar pattern of abuse, which she witnessed growing up in her parents’ violent relationship.

The film version of It Ends With Us may take place in Boston and Maine, but the production crew selected other filming locations to set the tone for the story of domestic violence and survival.

Even though many of the tale and character traits have strong roots in Bostonian and New England culture, none of the scenes were shot in this area. This makes one wonder where the real set for It Ends With Us was. Director Justin Baldoni—who also appears in the cast of It Ends With Us—made a very unusual selection when selecting the filming sites. There was not a single scene shot on a soundstage. Rather, he and the production crew decided to substitute other New Jersey cities for Maine and Boston.

The primary production locations for “It Ends with Us” were in New Jersey, including Hoboken and Jersey City. In addition, large portions of the drama movie were also shot in Boston, Massachusetts; Los Angeles, California; and New York City, New York. Even though the main production started in early May 2023, the 2023 WGA strike the following month forced a temporary halt. After several months of hiatus, the actors and crew returned to the sets in early January 2024 to continue filming.

1. Hoboken, New Jersey

The film’s main focus was on Field Colony, located at 1001 Bloomfield Street in Hoboken, as the location for numerous scenes showcasing the exterior and interior of Lily Bloom’s flower shop, which bears her name. Blake Lively plays Lily Bloom in the film. The art studio was converted into a rentable cafe for approximately six weeks by the production crew before it was converted into a floral store, according to sources. Other Bloomfield Street establishments are regularly shown in the background, like the Story Residential located at 1000 Bloomfield Street.

2. Jersey City, New Jersey

Jersey City, the county capital of Hudson County, New Jersey, was also the location of several crucial filming scenes for “It Ends with Us.” For the scene in which Lily meets up with Atlas, her childhood sweetheart, the production squad commandeered the South House restaurant at 149 Newark Avenue. Additionally, the Waterfront and other locations in the Newport district were transformed into movie sets. The Blake Lively beginning also appears from York Street’s Van Vorst Park Farmers’ Market.

3. Fair Mount Cemetery, New Jersey

Patriot Ledger has confirmed that Fair Mount Cemetery, located in the Chatham, New Jersey suburb, is another filming location. The scene where Lily and her mother visit her father’s grave has been included, showing the cemetery. As they break the cycle of abuse, Lily, her mother, and her daughter can now find closure thanks to this book change in It Ends With Us. Fair Mount Cemetery’s sleepy atmosphere is a wonderful fit for the made-up community of Plethora, Maine.

4. Plainfield, New Jersey

IMDb notes that Plainfield, New Jersey, which serves as a stand-in for the made-up little town of Plethora, Maine, was another location used for filming It Ends With Us. This city appears in the film’s opening scenes when Lily returns home for her father’s funeral and in her early memories. Although Plainfield is larger than Colleen Hoover’s description of Plethora in the book, it functions flawlessly.

It Ends With Us’s small village has a unique style that stands out against the city sceneries because of the Dutch Colonial architecture. The picturesque look draws attention to the contrast between the problems, such as abuse and homelessness, that can arise in small towns and the romanticization of small-town life.

5. Boston, Mas8sachusetts

The director and crew also shot extra scenes on location because Boston, Massachusetts, is the setting for Lily and Ryle’s story. Numerous establishing shots include various Bean Town landmarks and structures. For example, the Longfellow Bridge, built in 1906, and the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge, inaugurated in 2003, are visible.

6. Other Filming Locations

New York City and Los Angeles, two energetic cities with lots of activity, are major filming locations, but they only appear briefly in “It Ends with Us.” Some cast members shot in the City of Angels in February 2024, even though Blake Lively and the others were seen filming a few scenes on a New York City Street in May 2023.

Filming sequences that depicted gender-based violence was difficult for Justin Baldoni, the actor and director, as he admitted. There were many occasions when he had to go into a private room and cry or shake it out in an attempt to get him and that energy out of him because it was too genuine; he revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that “In those moments, to be perfectly frank, I really wasn’t the director, it was those women who were in charge. From the beginning, I wanted all the intimate scenes to be from a female gaze and I never wanted my bias to potentially interject and go into the film. So, I kind of stepped back and felt all the things and allowed myself to do the work and shook it off as best I could.”

Justin emphasized the value of intimacy and stunt coordinators on set in an interview with Bazaar India “When you shoot a film like this, as an actor, all this tension lives in your body…Having them on set and always in my eyeline was invaluable because, at any point, I could look to one of them for a thumbs up, or we’d work on another approach together. They were such an important and integral part of our process.”

About It Ends with Us

It Ends with Us is a romance novel by Colleen Hoover, published by Atria Books on August 2, 2016. Based on the relationship between her mother and father, Hoover described it as “the hardest book I’ve ever written.”

As of 2019, the novel had sold over one million copies worldwide and been translated into over twenty languages. In 2021, the novel experienced a resurgence in popularity through TikTok and topped sales lists for 2022 and 2023. A sequel titled It Starts with Us was published in October 2022. A film adaptation was released in August 2024, with a screenplay by Christy Hall. It was directed by Justin Baldoni, with Blake Lively, Baldoni, and Brandon Sklenar in lead roles.