The ’90s and early 2000s were, without question, the golden era of rom-coms. From Pretty Woman and Notting Hill to Runaway Bride and My Best Friend’s Wedding, audiences couldn’t get enough of Julia Roberts’ megawatt smile. When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, French Kiss, and You’ve Got Mail made Meg Ryan the poster girl for rom-com female leads. Romantic comedies had a glorious run, for sure. But for some reason or another, they fell from favor. They were seen as fluff, inconsequential, not “cinema.”
Decades later, teen romantic comedies, such as Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You, and She’s All That have not lost their appeal. Kate Hudson’s iconic yellow dress in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days remains a cultural icon. And Love Actually, Bridget Jones, and The Holiday remain favorite holiday movies. People are yearning for yearning to return to the screen. Audiences are nostalgic for the romantic comedies of yore, forever on the lookout for a modern-day rom-com movie that could recapture the same magic.
A Second Chance at Romance
Hollywood has tried—and failed—too many times to resuscitate the genre. The box office is littered with rom-coms that neither rommed nor commed. Turns out, despite being dismissed as cheesy and silly, romantic comedies are far from easy to make. Nora Ephron and Nancy Meyers may have made it look effortless, but a successful romantic comedy needs all the right ingredients in exactly the right amount to work.
It needs to make the audience swoon and laugh. People have to be invested in the relationship; the actors must sell the delightfully corny lines and confessions; and the characters need to be charming and likable even with their flaws. (Can you imagine what Bridget Jones’s Diary would have been like if Renée Zellweger hadn’t played her with so much wit and heart?) And at the center of it all is that elusive thing called chemistry—something you can’t manufacture or fake. Either it’s there, or it isn’t.
A few years back, Netflix’s Set It Up, starring Glen Powell and Zoey Deutch, was praised for the stars’ chemistry and engaging performances, and the movie’s whip-smart script. A year later, Always Be My Maybe, which paired standup comic Ally Wong with Randall Park, gave Asian Americans an onscreen couple to root for (and a magnificent Keanu Reeves cameo to boot). The warm reception to these modern rom-coms may have provided the first sparks in revitalizing the genre, but it needed more momentum.
With Anyone But You’s successful box-office run and the high expectations leading up to the release of Materialists, people were asking if the genre was finally making a comeback. Materialists, however, received lukewarm reviews, and while Anyone But You performed well, critics were more mixed in their response. It was starting to feel like the genre kept taking one step forward, two steps back.
Once More, With Feeling
Lately, it seems like love is in the air again. After many attempts at making romantic comedies happen—with varying levels of success—Hollywood may finally be getting it right again. Last year, Bridget Jones came out of retirement for a fourth outing with Bridget Jones: About the Boy, to great success, despite debuting on streaming and having a limited theater release. It made almost three times its budget, and was certainly better received by critics and audiences than Bridget Jones 2 and 3. Sure, nostalgia and Zellweger’s charisma played a huge part, but what truly made it special was the story—how it explored love, life, and grief.
The Idea of You, an age-gap rom-com starring Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine, was a hit for Prime Video and is certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. It is buoyed in part by the leads’ star power—Hathaway is rom-com royalty, and Galitzine is a certified Internet boyfriend—and by their undeniable chemistry.
The most recent success story is Netflix’s adaptation of Emily Henry’s wildly popular novel, People We Meet on Vacation. People may argue that having an established fanbase helped with its success, but truthfully, it could have gone either way. If the book’s fans hated the movie, that would have been the end of it. Luckily, the fandom gave it its seal of approval.
Casting Tom Blyth, another Internet boyfriend, opposite the effervescent Emily Bader was a stroke of genius. True, they could have worked more on establishing the leads’ relationship, but the ruin-the-friendship trope managed to hit all the right beats. The confessions were romantic, and more importantly, heartfelt. The characters, especially Bader, were lovable. And the chemistry? It was chemistry-ing. Hard.
Modern rom-coms that work have found the sweet spot between solid storytelling, star power, and undeniable chemistry—the same ingredients that made the genre thrive in the past.
In fact, the movie’s success has fast-tracked the adaptation of the rest of Henry’s works. Watch for Beach Read, Book Lovers, Happy Place, and Funny Story to hit your screens in the next few years.
However, if there’s one movie that could make you believe in the power of love…and modern rom-coms, it’s Eternity, an A24 indie movie starring Elizabeth Olsen, Miles Teller, and Callum Turner. The afterlife love-triangle story relies on established tropes, yet manages to stay fresh. And the cast delivers performances that will make you laugh, cry, and fall in love, in ways only a good romantic comedy can.
Modern rom-coms that work have found the sweet spot between solid storytelling, star power, and undeniable chemistry—the same ingredients that made the genre thrive in the past. Not everything has stayed the same, though. For better or worse, many of today’s romantic comedies have found their home on streaming platforms rather than in cinemas.
The rise of TikTok has also changed the game. Spotlighting modern love stories, including age-gap and queer romances, helps drive online conversation and buzz. A single viral clip can make—or break—a film’s cultural moment. This is partly why casting “Internet boyfriends” has proven so successful: They’re built for fan edits, thirst traps, and shareable soundbites. In the age of algorithms, being fan-edit-ready can be just as valuable as box-office appeal.
Adaptations also help stack the odds in a film’s favor. Three out of the four titles above are all based on best-selling novels, bringing with them ready-made audiences and devoted readers.
BookTok Meet Rom-com
Aside from Henry’s novels, other BookTok-famous romance reads are making their way to the screen, turning popular pages into romantic comedy gold mines.
Red, White & Royal Blue, the Amazon Prime queer rom-com about the First Son and a British prince falling in love, is adapted from Casey McQuiston’s bestselling novel. The film turned Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzin into household names and topped the streamer’s charts on release. A sequel, Red, White & Royal Wedding, is already in the works.
The upcoming adaptation of Ali Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis, an immensely popular rom-com novel based on a Rey and Kylo Ren fan-fiction, is already generating major buzz. It doesn’t hurt that the male lead, Tom Bateman, is married to Daisy Ridley, who plays Rey in the Star Wars movies. It also helps that social media-savvy Lili Reinhart, the female lead, has been feeding the fans top-tier TikTok promotional and behind-the-scenes content.
Love on the Rebound
It’s been said before—but maybe this time, it’s different. Thanks to the relative success of recent romantic comedies, coupled with a wealth of book-based love stories seemingly tailor-made for the screen, it feels like a new era of rom-coms may finally be taking shape.
Can this second coming reach the dizzying highs of decades past? Only time will tell. Still, here’s a piece of news guaranteed to inspire hope: the Nancy Meyers—director of Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday, It’s Complicated, and The Intern—is coming out of retirement to make her first romantic comedy in over a decade, with an original screenplay!
Set to star Penélope Cruz, Kieran Culkin, Jude Law, Emma Mackey, and Owen Wilson, the film is slated for a Christmas 2027 release. And if that’s not a sign that rom-coms are ready for a full-blown comeback, what is?
Maybe rom-coms never truly disappeared—we just stopped letting them be sincere. If this new era proves anything, it’s that audiences aren’t embarrassed to want love stories that end happily anymore. And perhaps that’s the real return: not just of the genre, but of our willingness to believe in it.
Rom-Coms Coming in 2026
It’s swoon season: Here are the flicks set to charm their way to screens this year.
You, Me & Tuscany
What do you get when you put the (live-action) Little Mermaid and Bridgerton’s Duke of Hastings together in sunny Tuscany? Why romance, of course!
Practical Magic 2
Put the lime in the coconut and drink up. Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman return as the Owen sisters in this tale of sisterly bond, romance, and witchcraft.
Heartstopper: Forever
For the final instalment of Nick Nelson and Charlie Spring’s queer romance, they’re going big. Expect the movie to drop on Netflix later this year.
The Love Hypothesis
If Lili Reinhart’s behind-the-scenes TikTok videos are anything to go by, it looks like her chemistry with Tom Bateman is going to be off the charts.
Pride and Prejudice
Looks like the world is due for another P&P adaptation, this time it’s a Netflix series that stars Emma Corrin as Elizabeth Bennet and Jack Lowden as Mr. Darcy.
