Is the romantic comedy really gone forever?
Once upon a time, romantic comedies were a dominant force in the film industry. Throughout the 90s and early 2000s, audiences flocked in their masses to see the latest heart-throb sweep his leading lady off her feet.
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For as long as the motion picture has existed, the romantic comedy has held a firm position as one of the biggest box-office earners. But seemingly out of nowhere, this reign finally came to an end. Since the 2010s, very few films have managed to emulate the previous success of the genre. Have our tastes changed? Are filmmakers just not making them like they used to? What on earth has happened to the once universally adored romantic comedy?
The landscape of cinema is in constant flux. It’s common for a particular genre to dominate the box office, only to disappear into oblivion. Remember back in the 2010s when we couldn’t step outside without being slapped in the face by the poster of the latest young adult dystopia? The wild success of The Hunger Games resulted in studios copying and pasting a formula that was guaranteed to line their pockets. But this led to an over-saturation of films within the genre, and audiences inevitably got bored. YA dystopia might not be able to boast the same longevity as the romantic comedy, but both have suffered the same fate. The once permanent fixture in cinema proved that it wasn’t as untouchable as we thought, and looking back through its history, it’s easy to see why.
Homogeneity is tedious. Following rigid genre conventions that are proven successful is common practice in Hollywood, but this gets boring. Rom coms tend to follow a mismatched, straight, white couple who have an infamous ‘meet cute’. We believe that they are destined to be together because of the fated circumstances under which they met. Conflict swiftly follows, and the relationship is called off until the couple ultimately re-unites in some extravagant public display of affection. From the press conference revelation in Notting Hill to the Grand Central Station flash mob in Friends with Benefits, the genre has undeniably delivered some of the most iconic acts of love of all time. But hundreds of films spawned from one formula. Some of them were outstanding, more of them were not. Eventually, we got tired.
The romantic comedy was briefly usurped by a slight evolution of the traditional formula in films like Bridesmaids and Trainwreck, which targeted the same demographic, but placed more emphasis on comedy. Audiences yearned for change, for slight iterations of the films they’ve always loved. Perhaps audiences no longer wish to watch films that sugarcoat relationships, as seen through the rise of the romantic tragedy, with films like La La Land and A Star Is Born proving hugely successful. In over 90% of romantic comedies, the couple is going to end up together, and you have to keep the audience on their toes if you want to hold their attention. But predictable endings are never going to do this.
It might be slightly unjust to say that the genre has been completely erased from existence. Netflix has become the primary distributor of romantic comedy in the modern era. The Kissing Booth, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, and about twenty other flicks starring Noah Centineo have been streamed en masse as the studio attempts to make up ground with a younger demographic. To All the Boys was met with the greatest critical acclaim. Not only did the screenplay provide dimensional versions of teenagers, but provided Asian representation for teens in a genre that has always been dominated by white actors and creators. Romantic comedies are notorious for their systematic underrepresentation of people of colour, along with their exclusive focus on cishet relationships. Not only did the genre exclude people of colour, but there are various examples of racial stereotyping in films such as Sixteen Candles. When you isolate audiences by not telling their stories, people stop showing up at the cinema. Especially when they can enjoy films that do represent them from the comfort of their own home.
By now, we all know that streaming is the future. The hottest genre of the hour is currently big blockbuster superhero films. Marvel are managing to bypass decay by refreshing their traditional formula and have the foresight to evaluate the potential loss of revenue that streaming could have by refreshing their formula. Through Disney Plus, they have made their entire catalogue available to stream. The exclusive release of new films via the platform for the same fee as a family cinema trip has brought in revenue that would otherwise have been diminished during the pandemic. But the key to their success has been the launch of limited series and TV shows, a format that has also given new life to romantic comedy.
A huge issue with the genre is that there is way more nuance to contemporary love than can be captured in a singular film. Enter the TV show. New Girl, Jane the Virgin, and more recently Emily in Paris, the genre still very much thriving through television. And TV has the advantage of allowing us to spend more time with the characters. We want to see the bad as much as we want to see the good to flesh out portrayals of romantic relationships. Extra time also provides further depth to female characters, something various rom com films lack. As society outgrows traditionalist views of relationships and with a dating scene that now exists online, television can capture the diversity of modern love more accurately than a film can.
The romantic comedy might have been booted from the cinema, but it’s not gone forever, and its future is hopeful. There are a million reasons why our interest in the genre has waned, but the industry can rectify its mistakes. Refreshing the genre, providing more diverse stories, and representing contemporary romance mean that the rom coms produced now less obviously resemble those of the past. But that is absolutely for the better.
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