What does ‘Anyone But You’s’ box office success mean for rom-coms? We asked the director
LOS ANGELES — As the success of Sony Pictures’ “Anyone But You” has shown, Hollywood might have been too quick to give up on the romantic comedy as a big box-office driver for movie theaters.
Rom-coms had gone from being a reliable source of ticketing revenue to a genre that seemed largely doomed to be devoured through streaming services, which would forever churn out low-budget small-screen simulacrums of the star-studded blockbusters that helped define the 1990s and 2000s.
But “Anyone But You” has given fans some fresh hope.
The R-rated flick, starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, got off to a modest start over the Christmas weekend but caught a wave of word-of-mouth and online virality.
Despite lukewarm reviews, the movie has grossed more than $150 million worldwide, including $76.3 million in the U.S. and Canada. It also led to “Unwritten” as a latent cultural touchstone.
