During winter break, I kept seeing TikTok ads for one particular movie: “Anyone But You,” starring Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney. These ads promised to revive the rom-com, a genre that has been pronounced dead after years of failing to live up to the highs it experienced in the 1990s and early 2000s. Now, I will admit that I haven’t seen “Anyone But You,” but it seems that perhaps the film did accomplish the feat the marketing said it would, with an impressive box office performance and positive reviews from audiences.
Really, the most notable thing about “Anything But You” was its theatrical release in an era where most rom-coms go straight to streaming. The absolute chokehold that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and other high-budget action/adventure and franchise films had on the box office has left little room for other genres to get their time in theaters. But as audiences start to grow tired with the MCU and its kind, a door is opening for formerly dying genres like the rom-com to walk through, and I, for one, could not be more excited.
It’s been a rough decade or so for us rom-com fans as the genre went the way of most mid-budget movies after the release of “Iron Man” in 2008. Coming out of the late 2000s, rom-coms began to make up less and less of the theatrical market share, while action movies reached higher highs than ever before. In 2022, action movies made up over half of the theatrical market share, while rom-coms accounted for only 1.4%.
With streaming on the rise and movie theater attendance plummeting, it makes sense that studios are less willing to take a chance on putting movies intended for niche audiences in theaters, which has unfortunately led to a lack of genre diversity in theatrical releases. Even more unfortunate, white men are typically seen as the average moviegoer, which leads to more films being made and marketed toward them, leaving genres aimed primarily toward women, like the rom-com, in the dust.
But now, Marvel’s dominance is starting to slip, and for a pretty simple reason — audiences are getting tired of the superhero movie. With the overwhelming amount of content that the MCU has been putting out, especially now that Disney+ has created a quantity-over-quality issue, it’s no wonder why. In 2023, Marvel put out three movies but didn’t get close to number one at the box office. Only one of the three even made the top 10.
And, look, I’m a superhero movie fan as well (I’ll be first in line for anything Spider-Man), but I know that I’m ready for a change. I’d venture to say that audiences at large are, too, after nearly two decades of superhero supremacy. Given the social media popularity of old rom-coms that have made their way to streaming, like “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” I’d say that rom-coms have a good chance of capturing audiences again if they play their cards right.
Fatigue with formulaic blockbusters is the very thing providing rom-coms with a chance for a fresh start, so if they’re going to take full advantage, filmmakers should be wary of trying to recreate the classics of the 90s and 2000s. Many of the rom-coms that have tried to shallowly relive those glory days have ended up forgotten by time, not anywhere near as iconic as their predecessors.
There have been a few movies that prove a rom-com renaissance is possible, though. “Crazy Rich Asians” was a critical and commercial hit, and for good reason. The movie was able to become one of the most iconic rom-coms in recent memory by opening up the genre to include people that rom-coms usually omit, but also by carefully developing the female lead and fleshing out her relationships aside from her romance (and by just generally being fun to look at). Also, please go watch “Set It Up” on Netflix if you haven’t already. It’s amazing.
It’s yet to be seen if rom-coms will reach the same highs as the era of “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” but it’s looking more and more possible if the success of “Anyone But You” shows us anything. Hopefully, blockbuster fatigue will bring us some innovative new love stories up on the big screen.
