I was raised on rom-coms. Every Saturday night, armed with a bag of popcorn in one hand and a box of tissues in the other, my mum and I would cozy up in front of the computer screen to see what Meg Ryan or Cary Grant were up to. Through their stories I learned the value of friendship and compromise, the importance of staying true to yourself, and, of course, for how long it rains in Seattle—all wrapped in a dose of cheesy, hopeless romanticism. And while I may not be as naive and wide-eyed as I was at nine years old, I remain a sucker for romantic comedies even now that I’m well into my twenties. But admittedly, I find it a bit hard to sit through rom-coms that have been released in recent years. Of the few that are still being made, quality has dropped, and viewership even more so. But why did that happen? Where have all the rom-coms gone?
Once upon a time rom-coms were synonymous for greatness and unrivalled success. Back in the good ol’ days, it was almost impossible to walk into a theatre and not see at least one poster with Katherine Heigl looking gorgeous in some puffy dress of questionable fashion. Now, the term ‘rom-com’ has to be uttered in hush tones, quiet enough so no one hears you. It has come to mean nothing more than ‘silly, air-head movies that are only good for background noise’.
In a time when people find love by swiping through photoshopped pictures on their phones, they no longer believe in the con of the happily-ever-after.
For some reason, people no longer want to see unrealistic meet-cutes at small cafes or watch Kate Hudson try to find Mr. Right for nearly two hours. They want to see romance that resembles the one you see in the real world, most of which just isn’t pretty and entertaining enough to be on the big screen. And no one is willing to race to the Empire State Building in the hopes of finding their soulmate or exchange private details of their personal life with a complete stranger over email anymore. In a time when people find love by swiping through photoshopped pictures on their phones, they no longer believe in the con of the happily-ever-after.
But is that what led to the demise of rom-coms? Are people simply too cynical to believe in love like they used to? Have they become too pessimistic and misanthropic to let themselves be engulfed by romance for 90 to 120 minutes? Or is there more to it?
The rom-com story
Defining romantic comedies is a pretty easy job—it’s there in the name, they are movies or plays that deal with romance in a comedic, humorous way. That sounds simple enough, right? Still, drawing a timeline of rom-coms is much more complicated.
When someone talks about romantic comedies nowadays, most minds go to classics of the ‘90s and early 2000s, with genre staples such as Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and 13 Going On 30 (2004). But rom-coms have been around for centuries. The formula that makes up the genre as we know it can be dated back to William Shakespeare and his plays The Merchant of Venice and Much Ado About Nothing. That is: two people meet, have a conflict of some sort, and then reunite to live their happily-ever-after, all adorned with a splash of comedy. Romantic comedy movies have only been around since 1924, with the silent films Sherlock Jr. and Girl Shy. Since then, they have undergone numerous makeovers, mainly due to the changing of our societal landscape and other cultural shifts.
Slowly but surely, the sun set on the Rom-Com Empire.
Rom-coms were considered a beloved genre for most of the 20th century up until the 2000s. Of course, its popularity was fluctuating from time to time, but a great deal of cult classic films can be found under the romantic comedy umbrella. Then, everything changed when the clock hit the 2010s. As the new decade set in, the tide began to turn and rom-com fatigue was officially upon us.
People were no longer showing up to cinemas and filling up seats to watch the latest romantic comedy release. Tickets weren’t selling anymore and studios were noticing. Audiences were letting the genre fade into obscurity. Then, the 2020s and a global pandemic happened, placing the final nail in the dusty coffin. Slowly but surely, the sun set on the Rom-Com Empire.
These days, it’s hard to find more than one rom-com in any list of upcoming films. And what’s even rarer is finding a good one. The cinema landscape is vastly dominated by Oscar-bait movies and big budget franchises, particularly superhero blockbusters. Meanwhile, rom-coms have disappeared from the public agenda almost entirely. Sure, you have films like Anyone But You (2023) and Red, White & Royal Blue (2023), but most people would be hard-pressed to name a third even with a gun to their head.
As barely anyone is still going to see them in theatres, the number of studios making and investing in romantic comedies is decreasing day by day. But why exactly is that?
When feminism met rom-coms…
For starters, the main audience of rom-coms has changed drastically over the last few years. Women have always been the target group of romantic comedies, but changes on the social level in the 2000s and 2010s have impacted how well they welcome this genre.
Society has progressed and rom-coms haven’t been able to keep up.
The 21st Century Woman wants to feel empowered, independent, and self-sufficient. She doesn’t want movies that tell her finding Mr. Right is what will ultimately make her happy. She prefers watching films that show women kicking ass and saving the day rather than pining over some loser for hours on end.
And as rom-coms usually rely on gender stereotypes for comedic relief and toxic tropes to drive their story, they just don’t cut it for the contemporary “enlightened” audience. If we take a moment to take a closer look at romantic comedies from the days of yore, we quickly realize that most of them are questionable at best and unhealthy at worst.
Beloved movie How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), for instance, was successful in its glory days and has become a genre classic. But if it were released now, I believe things would go a lot different. First of all, the film is quite literally a love story between two manipulative liars constantly trying to trick each other… not exactly the definition of a healthy relationship. Plus, it perpetuates the worst stereotypes about women and basically suggests they should depend on men and their love for happiness. As it was released over 20 years ago, we surely can’t expect it to be a paladin for progress, but I don’t think it would be as well-received if it debuted today.
Women in particular have become increasingly aware of gender norms and are starting to care more about achieving stable careers than finding their One True Love.
As time goes on and discussions about gender disparity and toxic relationships become dinner conversation, there has been an undeniable shift in how society approaches love and romance. While people still wish for a happily-ever-after of some sort, they now seek respect and communication over passion and the promise of being loved forever. Women in particular have become increasingly aware of gender norms and are starting to care more about achieving stable careers than finding their One True Love. Plus, the normalization of dialogues on issues such as consent and mental health have led to an increased global consciousness on relations between men and women. In short, society has progressed and rom-coms haven’t been able to keep up.
And so, most film studios now prefer to steer clear of romantic comedies altogether to focus on other genres which supposedly leave more room for feminism to prosper, such as superhero movies with female heroines. Still, that can also be a topic for discussion. Those films usually represent a very narrow and hardly-ever intersectional wave of feminism, one that is more about appearance rather than substance. Are they really a herald of progress?
Meanwhile, as rom-coms have decreased in ratings and audience, they have also gotten more un-feminist and problematic. And the quality has NOT improved.
Take The Kissing Booth (2018) as an example. The movie features sexual rhetoric, casual slut-shaming, the awful trope of ‘he is mean to you because he likes you’, and basically all the worst and most problematic elements of rom-coms. Yet, the film still got the green light, and so did its sequel, and the sequel’s sequel… and none of them got any less questionable or any better in quality.
Film studios have been decreasing their investments in rom-coms since 2004.
But that’s possibly due to the fact that as studios were seeing the rom-com audience get smaller day by day, they realized that investing hundreds of millions of dollars into making rom-coms was just not worth the money. The Kissing Booth cost around $10M to make—that might seem like a lot, but it’s actually nothing if you compare it to predecessors in the genre. Notting Hill (1999) had a budget of $42M, and… well, you can definitely see a difference in quality.
Film studios have been decreasing their investments in rom-coms since 2004, likely when they began to see a downward spike in the revenues, viewership, and market shares of the genre. This led to an unfortunate vicious cycle: less people tune in, studios put in less money, which deteriorates the quality, leading to (once again) less people tuning in… and so on and so forth.
But all things aside, rom-coms do still (sort of) live on, just not on the big screen…
You’ve got TV shows
Romance series may represent a glimmer of hope for the future of rom-coms.
TV shows have gone through a strong renaissance in mainstream media in the last few years, and romance series are among the ones taking the public by a storm.
Sitcoms usually include elements of comedy in their stories, so when you add romance to the mix you get… romantic comedies! That’s why I believe romance series may represent a glimmer of hope for the future of rom-coms—they have all the elements of the genre, are usually good, and (most importantly) people actually watch them.
Netflix show Bridgerton (2020—present), for instance, has staggering viewership numbers. Albeit not being officially categorized as a rom-com, the series includes humorist elements intertwined with romance, which is the very definition of a romantic comedy. Similarly, the Emmy-nominated romance comedy series Nobody Wants This (2024—present) has been a success since its first appearance on streaming. Turns out, A LOT of people want stories like that.
Korean Dramas (or K-Dramas) are another excellent contemporary version of rom-coms. They are undoubtedly romantic and, nine times out of ten, include several moments of comedic relief. And, most importantly, they are usually up there in terms of quality, with stunning cinematography, interesting dialogue, amazing soundtracks, as well as detailed and innovative plots.
Plus, K-Dramas are not afraid to take the romance to the next level—they’re not scared to come off as corny and cheesy, because they understand that’s the whole point. As more and more movies and shows are nearing cynicism when it comes to love, I find it refreshing to still have outlets for us romantics.
Crazy rich representation
As society is evolving, it’s very nice to see different backgrounds becoming more common, both in front of and behind the camera.
Nevertheless, once in a blue moon there is still a new good rom-com movie being released. It’s rare, sure, but it still happens sometimes. But the good thing about contemporary rom-coms is that they are becoming increasingly open to telling diverse stories and bringing marginalized communities to the forefront.
Crazy Rich Asians (2018) is a good example—the film features an all-Asian cast, and made a whooping box office gross of $239M against a $30M budget. That is an impressive record in itself, but it gets even better when you consider how most other rom-coms are performing nowadays. Another title which comes to mind is The Half of It (2020), a coming-of-age rom-com by Asian-American director Alice Wu following the trials of a young LGBT+ Asian-American girl navigating love and youth. Sure, the movie itself may not have broken viewership records, but it stands to reason that a movie like that would have not been made just 20 years ago—hence, still a positive breakthrough.
Both these films constitute big steps forward in the matter of representation within rom-coms, which is a huge problem the genre has had to face. The vast majority of existing romantic comedies are painted in only shades of pale and mostly deal with cis heterosexual couples. As society is evolving, it’s very nice to see different backgrounds becoming more common, both in front of and behind the camera. Everyone deserves to see themselves love and be loved, and it’s about time studios realize how big of a disservice they’ve been doing to society by keeping entire communities away from rom-coms.
Something new… maybe?
Perhaps the days of believing in the promise of everlasting love and that there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow are over.
All in all, even though the genre of rom-com movies may be in a coma at the moment, it is unlikely that rom-coms in general will ever completely die. They may exponentially decrease in quality (though, God forbid) and they might transfer entirely to the series format, but odds are that they will continue to live on in some way.
Love is not something that can be easily discarded and its magic is very hard to replace. Science-fiction and solemn movies may be all the rage these days, but the desire to watch people be cherished and yearned for will always be lingering around, waiting for audiences to welcome it once again. Besides, people will always need a laugh—and romantic comedies are just around the corner.
Maybe the genre will evolve to embrace today’s cynicism. Perhaps the days of believing in the promise of everlasting love and that there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow are over. It’s possible that the next chapter of romantic comedies is simply characters not ending up together and a diminished emphasis on humour.
To be honest, I am a little skeptical about that. Most people seek media to escape from their reality, and as romance becomes increasingly harder to find in the real world, audiences are bound to look for solace in the arms of movies and shows. It may seem like nobody wants romantic comedies nowadays, but waning popularity is no reason to call time of death (just yet). And in a world where pessimism and loneliness seem to run rampant, we might need rom-coms and the comfort of a happily-ever-after more than ever before.
