The ’90s brought some iconic romantic comedies such as Clueless, Pretty Woman and 10 Things I Hate About You, same with the early 2000s, which premiered some quintessential raunchy comedies like Superbad, The Scary Movie film series and The 40-year-old Virgin.
These types of movies are integrated in many people’s childhoods, as a matter of fact, many romantic movies have inspired young girls in their academic and professional journey.
Many girls grew up watching romantic comedies from the ’90s and 2000s, where the main character lives an independent and exciting life while working at a magazine, or a TV station, a bookstore, as a chef or writer. Many girls felt inspired by the lifestyle in the movies.
This is the case of Charonn Gutierrez, who studied Film and Media at Trent University.
“I remember watching The Holiday with my mom when I was seven years old, and Cameron Diaz’s character was a movie trailer producer, and I just thought that was so cool because I had never known that was even a job and seeing her doing it planted the seed for me wanting to work in film and TV,” Gutierrez said.
These movies not only impacted the lives of many, but also the box office.
The success of these comedies, both raunchy and romantic, can’t be denied, as they were one of the highest-grossing genres of the time.
Comedies and romantic comedies were amongst the highest-grossing genres of the late nineties and early 2000s, but that declined started in the 2010s. Photo credit: Unsplash/Kyle Smith
Comedies were among the highest grossing genres of the late ’90s and early 2000s.
The Numbers, a premium provider of movie industry data, shows that the Comedy genre was dominating the box office back in 1997, holding 20.4 per cent of the box office market share that year, making it the second to the top genre, which was Action.
Comedies maintained an average share of 20 per cent until 2008, but that quickly came down, with 2020 seeing a significant decline in revenue with comedies only claiming 3.8 per cent of the box office that year.
Romantic Comedies had a similar trajectory, according to Statista the highest-grossing year for romantic comedies was 1999, gaining US$835 million across the United States and Canada from romantic comedies alone.
According to The Numbers, in 1999 romantic comedies commanded a 11.4 per cent share of the box office shares, being the highest amount claimed by the genre.
Before the 2020s, romantic comedies managed to hold an average of five to seven per cent of the box office share per year, however, that amount has decreased significantly in the last few years.
Romantic comedies didn’t exist in 2021, but it is now slowly increasing, with 2022 seeing a 1.4 per cent of share. As confusing as these numbers might seem, what seems more confounding to the public is the reason why this is happening.
People share their longing for these types of movies on social media every day, with multiple reddit and twitter threads discussing the apparent disappearance of the genres.
Dayanna Romero, a Toronto elementary teacher’s assistant and a movie enthusiast at heart, said she’s enjoying the resurgence of romantic comedies.
“It makes me so happy when I see that there are new movies coming out and they feel like my all-time favourites,” she said. “Especially this year, and a little of 2022, it’s like Hollywood is making fun movies again instead of only superhero dramas.”
She agrees her favourite movie genre was being neglected the past years, but feels hopeful for the future as it seems to be making a comeback.
The resurgence of the rom-com is something seen mostly in the last five years, starting with movies like Booksmart, Crazy Rich Asians, The Set Up and Netflix’s screen adaptation of the trilogy To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before.
These movies brought audiences a new perspective on the all-too-well known comedy and romantic genres, while also maintaining the exact amount of nostalgia, enough to make them both a success commercially and amongst the public.
Gutierrez said she hopes this is not just a trend, but that this means that these beloved genres are coming back to stay.
“I love all of the new movies that are coming out, I like how there are more different stories now rather than before because I also get to learn from this movies, so I hope they are here to stay instead of fading away again in a couple of years,” Gutierrez said.
American author screenwriter and cinephile Mike Jones said in an article for Screenrant, the return of the rom-com film is significant.
“Now more than ever, perhaps, viewers can look past the fantastical elements of rom-coms and just allow themselves the guilty pleasure of forgetting about the real world,” he said.
“Just what the future holds for the romantic comedy is still taking shape, but for now at least, what was once thought to be a dead concept is proving it’s still got some life in it yet,” Jones said.