After We Collided (Film)

This article is about the 2020 film. You may be looking for the book, After We Collided.

“	Like I said, this is a story you've heard before. Only difference is, this is our story. Tessa's... and mine. And who knows, maybe there is a happy ending for us after all... I guess we'll just have to find out.	”
	— Hardin's closing monologue

After We Collided is a romance-drama film based on the hit-novel, After We Collided by Anna Todd. After We Collided is the second film in the After film series.

The film was released in the United States on October 23, 2020, and was rated R. It was directed by Roger Kumble and written by Anna Todd and Mario Celya.

Synopsis

Hardin Scott (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) and Tessa Young (Josephine Langford) go through the aftermath of their break up. While Hardin falls into some bad habits, Tessa, armed with a new confidence, lands the internship of her dreams at Vance Publishing company. While at Vance, she also grabs the attention of her handsome new co-worker Trevor (Dylan Sprouse), who is exactly the kind of guy she should be with. He is smart, funny, handsome and responsible; however, Tessa cannot get Hardin out of her head. He is after all, the love of her life. Even with all their misunderstandings and hardships, Tessa can’t deny the pull she feels towards Hardin. She wishes she could walk away…it’s just not that easy. Through all their ups and downs, the wrongs and rights, Hardin and Tessa will fight to be together… even if the universe wants them to be apart.

Cast

Josephine Langford as Tessa Young
Hero Fiennes Tiffin as Hardin Scott
- John Jackson Hunter as Young Hardin Scott
Dylan Sprouse as Trevor Matthews
Louise Lombard as Trish Daniels
Shane Paul McGhie as Landon Gibson
Candice King as Kimberly
Charlie Weber as Christian Vance
Khadijha Red Thunder as Steph Jones
Inanna Sarkis as Molly Samuels
Pia Mia as Tristan
Samuel Larsen as Zed Evans
Dylan Arnold as Noah Porter
Karimah Westbrook as Karen Scott
Rob Estes as Ken Scott
Selma Blair as Carol Young
Max Ragone as Smith Vance
Ariel Jasmine Ryther as Jamie
Ashley Lorenzo as Yoga Instructor
Stefan Rollins as Richard Young^[1]
Saundra L. Neal as Uber Driver
Constance Michelle Payne as Zoe/Tattoo Artist
Vince Pisani as Hotel Manager
Chao Feng as Kevin Neal
Vanessa Dubasso as Ally
Sarah Rossman as Nadia
Anna Todd as Club Patron #1
Beatrice Kumble as Club Patron #2
Jennifer Gibgot as Club Patron #3 (Uncredited)

Production

On May 19, 2019, it was confirmed that a sequel was planned with Josephine Langford and Hero Fiennes Tiffin reprising their roles as Tessa Young and Hardin Scott respectively had been greenlit.^[2]

Filming officially began on August 12, 2019, and wrapped on September 16, 2019.

Voltage films handled production for regions outside the US.^[3] However, the US production company has yet to be announced.

The film used the alias Stars Collide for production. However, many fans discovered the alias before filming started.^[4]

Complete production for After We Collided finished on January 28, 2020.^[5]

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, scheduling the release for After We Collided proved difficult. As of April 12, 2020, it was unknown when the film would be distributed.^[6] On July 15, 2020, several international release dates were announced, however, there is still no news on a USA release date.^[7]

On July 16, 2020, the classification for the Australian government of the film was made available and showed the film is 105 minutes long. Themes included alcohol abuse, a traumatic incident witnessed by a young boy, violence, sex, language, drug use, and brief nudity.^[8]

On September 13, 2020, Voltage Picture COO Johnathan Deckter released an interview with Deadline where he spoke on the impact of the film and how the film was initially was supposed to release internationally in April or May. The film was pushed to October 2 before shifting that scenario when Wonder Woman 1984 took the same date. “We had a group Zoom with the European distributors in late June — just after Wonder Woman declared October 2 — and we had a big decision to make, push back or move forward. All of the European distributors saw a gap in the market and made the case to go early September and we agreed. The release pattern on this film was always to have international lead the charge since the first film outperformed the U.S. by 400%.”^[9]

Cast Changes

On August 5, 2019, Dylan Sprouse joined the cast as Trevor Matthews.^[10]

On August 14, 2019, John Jackson Hunter was announced as Young Hardin Scott.^[11]

On August 15, 2019, Max Ragone (Smith Vance), Charlie Weber (Christian Vance), Louise Lombard (Trish Daniels), and Candice King (Kimberly) were announced to round out the cast.^[12]

Due to scheduling conflicts, the roles of Ken Scott and Karen Scott had to be recast. On August 15, 2019, Rob Estes and Karimah Westbrook were announced to be the new Ken and Karen, respectively.^[13]

Release Dates

Most release dates for After We Collided were announced on July 15, 2020. The US release date came on July 27, 2020. This is the most up-to-date worldwide list for known release dates for After We Collided.

September 2, 2020 (Italy, Portugal, United Kingdom, Ireland)
September 3, 2020 (Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Ukraine)
September 4, 2020 (Bulgaria, Finland)
September 10, 2020 (Australia, Middle East, Denmark)
September 11, 2020 (Canada, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Romania)
September 17, 2020 (Russia, Serbia. Montenegro, Slovenia)
September 18, 2020 (South Africa, Turkey)
October 10, 2020 (Netherlands)
October 14, 2020 (Belgium)
October 23, 2020 (United States)
December 22, 2020 (Italy, UK, France: via Amazon Prime)
December 22, 2020 (USA: via Netflix)
January 1, 2021 (Spain: via Amazon Prime)

Box Office Success

After We Collided was among select films that premiered in theaters when theaters were beginning to reopen from the COVID-19 pandemic. It premiered internationally first, with the films opening weekend scoring particularly well in Italy, Spain, and Portugal, where it was the top title, and delivering an estimated $7.9m over the five-day period. The numbers were significantly higher than the opening weekend viewings for After in Italy, Portugal, and Spain.^[14] By August 7, 2020, the overall reportings were estimated at $10.2M on 2,000 screens in 13 markets.^[15]

The film opened in an additional 21 markets, bringing in $4.2M, bringing the overall tally to approximately $21M. Overseas, the UK is a particularly notable source of box office success. After premiering last weekend on just 59 screens via Shear Entertainment, theaters upped the count to 380 screens. On the weekend of September 13th, theaters experienced an 18% jump for a cumulative audience (amount of people who visited the theaters) bringing a total of $947K to date. The first film was not released theatrically in the market, selling instead to Netflix, but an online push asked fans to let the exhibition know how much they wanted to see the movie in a cinema.

Voltage President and COO Jonathan Deckter spoke on the success saying, “Our success in the UK is a testament to the power of a strategic grassroots social campaign that spoke directly to our film’s target audience in the forum they prefer. Traditional release marketing will always have its place, but as far as Afternators are concerned, they live and breathe social”.

Germany has made a total of $5.24M to date, followed by Italy where the film opened No. 1 last weekend (weekend of September 6) and has now grossed $4.24M. Spain has exceeded After in 10 days with a current total of $3M. Austria also topped After while Norway earned 156% more than the original. Hungary has also double the number of viewers and purchases than the first movie.^[16]

By October 11, 2020, After We Collided had made a total of 42.5 million ahead of its USA October 23 release. The current weekend was good for $2M in 34 markets. The Netherlands opened No. 1 with $820K. Germany claims $8.5M to date, followed by Italy ($4.9M), UK ($4.7M), Russia ($3.8M) and Spain ($3.8M).^[17]

The film debuted in the United States on October 23, 2020, on both digital and in theaters. It opened as the No. 1 film in digital entertainment over the weekend, which also had a limited opening in theaters, ranking in the top 10 with $420K at 460 locations.^[18] That same weekend internationally, Voltage Pictures reported that After We Collided had a $1M weekend in 36 markets including a number one start in Iceland.^[19]

The United States VOD (video on demand) sales were at a high over the Halloween weekend, October 26 - November 2, 2020. After We Collided ranked number one on AppleTV and Google Play, beating out all Halloween classics. It ranked third on FandangoNOW and Spectrum.^[20] For box offices, After We Collided saw a large drop compared to overseas markets. It earned 100,000 that weekend, and $2.241 million in total for the United States.^[21] The estimated cume for the film thus far is about $50M USD.

Upon its premiere on Netflix in the United States on December 22, 2020, After We Collided rocketed to number one in Netflix's top-ten films and television programs. This is immensely impressive given that the film surpassed several popular Christmas movies including How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Klaus, and The Christmas Chronicles.

Notes and Trivia

The film is rated R per Anna Todd's new contract.^[22]
On August 7, 2019, Roger Kumble was announced to be the new director of the project.
After We Collided features Hardin providing the overall voiceover for the film, as opposed to Tessa, who did the voiceover for After.
Anna Todd has a cameo in the film as a nightclub patron, who responds on which she books she likes best.
After We Collided takes place one month after the events of After.
The film was originally given 37 days to film. For unknown reasons, the film had to be shot in 25 days instead.^[23]
- Larry Reibman was hired as a last-minute cinematographer to help finish the film on time.
Josephine Langford (Tessa Young) had to learn how to ice skate for a scene.
Selma Blair filmed several scenes for the film despite her ongoing battle with MS.^[24]
Following the footsteps of its predecessor, information regarding the film was leaked to social media either illegally or accidentally. Much of said content has since been deleted, with legal action being taken by Anna Todd and the companies responsible for After We Collided.
- On December 6, 2019, an illegal foreign trailer for the film was leaked.^[25]
- On January 6, 2020, there was a major content leak when Anna Todd released information to her friends in a group chat. The content included two clips from the film and a (presumably) behind the scenes photo. The information was leaked by one or more members.^[26]
On December 24, 2019, After Movie released an exclusive Christmas-video featuring Hardin, Tessa, and Santa. The video is not featured in the film.^[27]
On December 24, 2019, Anna responded to fans on Twitter.
- She said that the film wouldn't be released in February, despite fan speculation.^[28]
- She had a rough date for the teaser release, however, it was up to the distributors when it would come out. She described the teaser as "fire".^[29]
- Most of AWC takes place around Christmas time, despite it being August/September when the film was shot.^[30]
On December 31, 2019, Roger Kumble revealed that he and Anna were listening to hundreds of songs in hopes of finding the right ones for certain scenes. Justin Burnett is writing the score.^[31]
On December 31, 2019, Anna Todd stated that the teaser was originally supposed to be released over the holidays. However, the studio (Voltage pictures) said it wasn't ready for release.^[32]
On January 22, 2020, Samuel Larsen and Louise Lombard did ADR work for After We Collided. Inanna Sarkis, Khadijha Red Thunder and Josephine Langford did ADR a few days later. Hero Fiennes Tiffin was able to do his ADR from England.
On February 5, 2020, the After accounts celebrated Hardin Scott's birthday by posting images promoting the sequel.^[33]^[34]^[35]
On February 7, 2020, the first sneak peek for the film was released. It also teased the potential release of the trailer.^[36]
On February 14, 2020, the official 46-second teaser was released.
On April 12, 2020, the second sneak peek for the film was released. The clip was posted to celebrate the one-year anniversary of After film being released.^[37]
On April 29, 2020, Anna spoke about After We Collided in a live interview. "I said I wanted Candice King and they gave me Candice, I said I wanted Charlie Weber for Vance, they gave me Charlie, I wanted Karimah Westbrook for Karen. I got all of the castings I wanted in the second movie so I'm very happy."^[38]
On July 15, 2020, After Movie released several foreign release dates for over a dozen countries with more release dates marketed as coming soon.^[39]
- Also on July 15, the first teaser poster and banner were released and featured an edited still from the film with Hardin and Tessa.
On July 20, 2020, the third clip from the film was released. It featured Tessa entering Vance Publishing and meeting Trevor Matthews for the first time in the elevator. She also met Kimberly in person. The clip is the longest clip to-date with a length of one minute and twenty seconds.
On July 22, 2020, the official movie poster and banner were released - both with coming soon air dates.
On July 27, 2020, the official trailer for After We Collided was released.
There will be an After We Collided book cover with a movie poster tie-in.^[40]
Dove Cameron has two songs as part of the movie. One in the trailer, We Belong, and So Good, heard during the shower sex scene.
Roger Kumble reworked certain aspects of the script and production so Selma Blair could have a part in the film despite her ongoing struggle with MS.
To create author names at Vance Publishing, Anna and Roger combined names of some fan accounts.^[41]
Dylan Sprouse wrapped filming two-weeks before Josephine Langford and Hero Fiennes Tiffin.
A duplicate of Anna Todd's Wuthering Heights was used in AWC, only due to production having lost her original copy for a week while filming After.
Despite the film being released on digital for purchase on October 23rd, 2020, the deleted scenes from the film will not be available then but instead, at another point in time. Roger Kumble teased that the scenes weren't "deleted", but instead, "edited out" of the film.^[42]
- Speaking more on scenes that were deleted or cut out, Roger confirmed which scenes were actually shot versus those that fans had speculated were filmed and believed to be true.^[43]
There is an Easter egg to director Roger Kumble's iconic directorial film, Cruel Intentions, that is noted for its similar plots to After.
Josephine and Hero found it "freeing" and "realistic" to have the R-rating open the ability to curse.^[44]
The shower scene was the heaviest choreographed scene in the film.^[44]
The baby photo of Hardin in Ken's house is a real childhood photo of Hero Fiennes Tiffin. Production had him send a photo in for them to use.^[44]
Anna had to fight with the higher-ups to allow the cast and crew to share any type of behind the scenes content from the film.^[44]
While filming a club scene with Charlie Weber (Christian Vance), Dylan Sprouse (Trevor Matthews), and Josephine Langford (Tessa Young), the cast and crew were surprised at how sexy Jo was and how she was dancing.^[45]
Bloopers are included in the DVD package. Roger Kumble ensured that they had bloopers.
- He confirmed this again on November 10, 2020, when he replied to a fan on Twitter saying that he was prepping for commentary, while the bloopers were waiting for legal approval from the actors involved.^[46]
While some behind the scenes content were taken, the process of getting them approved and financially backed was too complicated. There most likely won't be a behind the scenes reel. Anna got a lot of content herself as they didn't have a social media producer on set. It should be noted that behind the scenes content is different than promotional content.
Because the first film was written and made in a certain way, it changed the plot and events of After We Collided. Because they couldn't "undo" the events they had to do the best they could to evolve the plot. One of the things the producers were able to change from the first film was Hessa's apartment. The new set designer was able to redo the apartment so Hessa had a bedroom and the bathroom was readjusted.
The first scene Josephine Langford (Tessa Young) shot in the film was her standing behind a curtain reacting to something.
Because of the hype around the fucking Trevor statements, production decided to make a big deal out of the first time Hardin calls Trevor, fucking Trevor.
The first week of filming was most of the heavy emotional scenes. Including Hardin's emotions, nightmares, and the assault scene. The second week was lighter with the third really getting into the regular and sexy scenes.
They had to remove most of the Zed storylines from AWC, due to him not having the start with Tessa in After that he did in the books.
The shower scene was the heaviest choreographed scene in the film.^[44]
The baby photo of Hardin in Ken's house is a real childhood photo of Hero Fiennes Tiffin. Production had him send a photo in for them to use.^[44]
Anna had to fight with the higher-ups to allow the cast and crew to share any type of behind the scenes content from the film.^[44]
The "I love you" scene was the most emotional scene for Anna to watch while filming.^[44]
Tessa's bracelet was the hardest to get made, with the first version of it being vastly different from what Anna wanted so they remade it a little.^[44]
Following its availability to rent or purchase digitally, After We Collided was placed in two special bundles. One being the "After bundle" where the film could be purchased alongside its predecessor, After. Another was labeled the "Kumble Bundle" that featured After We Collided and Cruel Intentions.
- The "Kumble Bundle" was described as, "from acclaimed director Roger Kumble comes two of the hottest romances of all time featuring some of the hottest stars of their generation, After We Collided and Cruel Intentions."
The only unscripted kiss in the film was during the Truth or Dare game on New Years, when Tessa gives Hardin a peck after saying "I got this". Roger Kumble elaborated that he couldn't remember if Josephine improvised the kiss or not.^[47]
- The bed scene that followed included a scripted fall off the bed, which had padding for the actors to land on.^[48]
Roger's least favorite scene to film was the assault scenes with Josephine and Louise. The crew made the environment safe but it was still uncomfortable, with Roger adding that they only filmed it to show context for Hardin's background.^[49]
On November 25, 2020, it was announced that Amazon Prime had secured a deal to stream After We Collided in the UK, France, Italy and Spain.^[50]
- The film was made available in Italy, United Kingdom, and France on December 22, 2020. The Spain release date was January 1, 2021.
After We Collided is available for streaming via the US Netflix on December 22, 2020.^[51]