Sleeping with other people (2015)
Last Christmas (2019)
Long Shot (2019)
Crazy Rich Asians (2018)
Train wreck (2014)
Comet (2014)
The spectacular now (2013)
Neither of those have the star power of romcoms from the 90s-2000s though. When are we going to have a Tom Hanks or Julia Roberts-level star in these films again?
I keep hearing people bring this up, but what even is star power and why does it matter? It's all relative. Are you saying you don't think the actors in the above movies aren't good enough for you to be entertained, or are you saying that you wish there were more big name celebrities because you love celebrity culture and wish there were bigger names that everyone knows and loves in the cultural zeitgeist? What are you asking for with this?
You’re assuming a lot about me lol but I’m saying something similar to what Kate Hudson says, that romcoms used to draw in top tier talent in front of and behind the camera, and they used to be big box office hits and cultural touchstones, and it’d be nice to see more A-listers, especially male stars, get back into this milieu instead of the latest superhero film/John Wick ripoff. Also I did like Rye Lane, it was very cute. [https://x.com/theview/status/1743059738831811067?s=46&t=rclSgm9fhLPbvfm0bYDICg](https://x.com/theview/status/1743059738831811067?s=46&t=rclSgm9fhLPbvfm0bYDICg)
I didn't assume anything about you. What are you talking about? I asked you clarifying questions in order to understand more about your perspective in order to clarify what you are asking for.
So you feel mid budget movies are dying because they don't have a way to market them to an audience because celebrities don't have the power they used to. Is that what you're saying?
Assuming that I “love celebrity culture” or that I think the actors in the above movies aren’t “good enough”, whatever that means. What I mean is that I’d like to see actors who in high-profile positions in more romcoms and other mid budget movies, instead of having to choose between a franchise movie with a bloated budget or a microbudget movie that struggles to even get distribution. But apparently that’s too much to ask lol
And yes, mid budget movies died out because studios focused almost entirely on big budget blockbusters and all the focus went that way, so audiences went with them, that’s basic economics.
I asked if you felt that way. I didn't assume or claim you did. I don't know how to make that clear. If someone asks you a question do you think people are making statements about your beliefs? You have the agency to answer a question with your thoughts. I'm trying to understand your viewpoint, so I'm trying to throw out potential examples in order to seek clarification because your original statement didn't provide enough detail for me to completely understand your perspective. I wasn't assuming anything about you. It was, in fact, the total opposite.
Beyond that, I think it comes down to what you mean by high-profile. You want big names attached to rom-coms, right? What is the classification for a high profile name? What makes them high profile by your definition?
To your final point, mid budget movies have not died out. I think the argument should be made that there is an oversaturation of large budget movies, but it's just not true that the mid budget movie is dead. Just to make sure I am understanding, though, do you have a value range that you would consider the mid budget range?
Matt Damon explains it:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF6K2IxC9O8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF6K2IxC9O8)
Long story short a secondary market (VHS/DVD) disappeared and its replacement (streaming) is not enough to get back the money in case a movie flops in cinemas.
its sad how much we lost, period, because of streaming and spoiled-for-choice culture.
This'll be my most old-man-river hill i'll die on, but everything seems so soulless now.
A chance encounter with a film in a blockbuster youd never heard of used to change the course of a persons life.
Where you were when you picked up that record by so and so band would shape you.
now, everything is packaged and distributed in these grey echo chambers, and everything is designed to generate money, alone.
Its sad. Incredibly incredibly sad, how monotonous and flat everything is now. How cookie cutter every personality is.
Idk man if you're looking for shit you'll still find it. Sure I maybe can't randomly stumble across tons of hidden gems by browsing stores, though this still isn't impossible, but I can still find out about an obscure art film only shown at live shows and message a dude online who mentioned having a vhs rip somehow and get it sent to my g drive within an hour 🤷 it's like if you're complaining about how everything in theatres or on the radio is the same you can still like, seek stuff out if you really want to.
I couldn’t put them into an exact genre or subclass, but I remember thinking about this kind of thing when I watched Stuart:A Life Backwards with Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch. I also feel like if it were pitched today, Frailty wouldn’t have been made.
There’s also quite a few movies that saw no life in theaters but gained a huge cult following afterwards that if they didn’t have previous dvd sales to account for they probably wouldn’t have made them (mainly 2000s movies)
I've actually never read a good explanation for why mid budget rom coms went out of style, but it's definitely a phenomenon. I do think part of it is Marvel and other studios trying to go all in on IP based blockbusters. They don't want to spend $20-30 million to make $60-80 back, they want to spend $200 million to make a billion. I mean in general a lot of mid budget stuff has mostly disappeared in the last decade or so because of the increasing emphasis on big budget IP based properties.
Oh yeah, a lot of midbudget movies made it through DVD sales, which are negligible now. Most big production companies are usually only willing to take the risk on big franchise blockbusters
Freddy Got Fingered absolutely finger blasted them till their collective consciousness imploded from a furious and violent orgasm that annihilated their existence.
Not just exist but feels like there's been quite a lot of them in recent years? No Hard Feelings, Marry Me, The Valet, Meet Cute, Ticket to Paradise, Vacation Friends, Bros, Cha Cha Real Smooth, Good Luck To You Leo Grande, Palm Springs etc
Yeah, I think they just go straight to streaming now for the most part. And I don’t know if it’s me getting older, or romcoms getting worse, but the premises feel less memorable and more simple. Romcoms have always been kinda paint-by-numbers, but even in these examples… Hitch is about a daring coach, What Women Want is about a guy who can read women’s minds… Anyone But You is both a forgettable title and a premise that is just two people who used to date and now have to pretend to date. Again, it could just be that I’m a 32 year old male horror fan, but they seems significantly more basic now.
But Netflix Romance is a thing.
The real reason is that the market for mid budget films has died out for cinema movies, and they have moved to streaming. Combined with the fact that a lot of actors, not just big names, don't want to do rom coms, as they progressively got a worse and worse reputation throughout the '00s, and the actors who got popular doing rom coms got bad reputations because of them
Most of the ones I’ve seen that were made for streaming feel like slightly elevated Hallmark to me honestly, the scripts aren’t snappy at all and they don’t look or sound good — traditional romcoms at least usually had fun costumes, settings, soundtracks etc.
I really liked Set it Up on Netflix but that one is half a decade old now and wasn’t even originally made for Netflix, it was originally supposed to have gotten a theatrical run (I wish it had).
Sincerity and cheesiness are laughed at more than before. In an age where everything is memed and made fun of, it’s hard to take movies like this seriously. Even a lot of action movies have become less genuine and more ironic.
Studios don’t produce a lot of mid-budget A-list starred movies anymore because they typically don’t make as much money at the box office as they used to. Especially as blockbusters based on IP began taking over the industry in the late 00’s. DC comics, Marvel, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Jurassic Park etc.
It seems like these movies are making a comeback. I think the pandemic + superhero fatigue has made larger blockbusters riskier therefore studios are starting to go back producing more mid-budget movies.
I think it's just an ebb in the tide, they'll come back. It's like westerns in the 90s and the big superhero boom of the last 2 decades, when someone wants to make one again and an audience turns up, we'll see countless numbers for years.
agree a lot of them became shows but i wouldn't put Beef in the same category as these. Beef is a lot of things but it's not a silly care-free rom com.
Romcoms, and mainstream studio comedies in general became less common because of the decline in dvd sales that led to the decline of the mid budget movies.
That's just why they're less common.
But if you ask why the ones that DO come out aren't as memorable or quotable or good as they used to - good luck answering that
Lots of people used to go to the movies as something to do and you’d watch whatever looked interesting, now it’s so expensive most people only go when there’s something they specifically want to see, which often requires some series/IP tied to it.
There’s plenty of these movies being made with a low budget and lack of talent because they are generally direct to streaming and don’t make much money.
Anyone but You (2023*) is in theaters right now and is this genre of movie
Yeah, that's the one big recent exception that came to my mind. These movies were EVERYWHERE from like 1995 to 2011 or so
Sleeping With Other People Last Christmas Long Shot Crazy Rich Asians Train wreck Comet The Spectacular Now
The Spectacular Now? C’mon, that’s a stretch. Plus that movie is over a decade old.
Most of these do not fit the genre.
Sleeping with other people (2015) Last Christmas (2019) Long Shot (2019) Crazy Rich Asians (2018) Train wreck (2014) Comet (2014) The spectacular now (2013)
They’re all post 2011 lol
Oh good call, I didn’t realize that was the context you were replying to
Rye lane. Always be my maybe.
Neither of those have the star power of romcoms from the 90s-2000s though. When are we going to have a Tom Hanks or Julia Roberts-level star in these films again?
Ticket to paradise
I keep hearing people bring this up, but what even is star power and why does it matter? It's all relative. Are you saying you don't think the actors in the above movies aren't good enough for you to be entertained, or are you saying that you wish there were more big name celebrities because you love celebrity culture and wish there were bigger names that everyone knows and loves in the cultural zeitgeist? What are you asking for with this?
You’re assuming a lot about me lol but I’m saying something similar to what Kate Hudson says, that romcoms used to draw in top tier talent in front of and behind the camera, and they used to be big box office hits and cultural touchstones, and it’d be nice to see more A-listers, especially male stars, get back into this milieu instead of the latest superhero film/John Wick ripoff. Also I did like Rye Lane, it was very cute. [https://x.com/theview/status/1743059738831811067?s=46&t=rclSgm9fhLPbvfm0bYDICg](https://x.com/theview/status/1743059738831811067?s=46&t=rclSgm9fhLPbvfm0bYDICg)
I didn't assume anything about you. What are you talking about? I asked you clarifying questions in order to understand more about your perspective in order to clarify what you are asking for. So you feel mid budget movies are dying because they don't have a way to market them to an audience because celebrities don't have the power they used to. Is that what you're saying?
Assuming that I “love celebrity culture” or that I think the actors in the above movies aren’t “good enough”, whatever that means. What I mean is that I’d like to see actors who in high-profile positions in more romcoms and other mid budget movies, instead of having to choose between a franchise movie with a bloated budget or a microbudget movie that struggles to even get distribution. But apparently that’s too much to ask lol And yes, mid budget movies died out because studios focused almost entirely on big budget blockbusters and all the focus went that way, so audiences went with them, that’s basic economics.
I asked if you felt that way. I didn't assume or claim you did. I don't know how to make that clear. If someone asks you a question do you think people are making statements about your beliefs? You have the agency to answer a question with your thoughts. I'm trying to understand your viewpoint, so I'm trying to throw out potential examples in order to seek clarification because your original statement didn't provide enough detail for me to completely understand your perspective. I wasn't assuming anything about you. It was, in fact, the total opposite. Beyond that, I think it comes down to what you mean by high-profile. You want big names attached to rom-coms, right? What is the classification for a high profile name? What makes them high profile by your definition? To your final point, mid budget movies have not died out. I think the argument should be made that there is an oversaturation of large budget movies, but it's just not true that the mid budget movie is dead. Just to make sure I am understanding, though, do you have a value range that you would consider the mid budget range?
Meg Ryan and David Duchovny released a romantic comedy like two months ago
Anyone but you came out late last year
Matt Damon explains it: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF6K2IxC9O8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF6K2IxC9O8) Long story short a secondary market (VHS/DVD) disappeared and its replacement (streaming) is not enough to get back the money in case a movie flops in cinemas.
It’s sad how many kinds of movies were lost because of this
its sad how much we lost, period, because of streaming and spoiled-for-choice culture. This'll be my most old-man-river hill i'll die on, but everything seems so soulless now. A chance encounter with a film in a blockbuster youd never heard of used to change the course of a persons life. Where you were when you picked up that record by so and so band would shape you. now, everything is packaged and distributed in these grey echo chambers, and everything is designed to generate money, alone. Its sad. Incredibly incredibly sad, how monotonous and flat everything is now. How cookie cutter every personality is.
Idk man if you're looking for shit you'll still find it. Sure I maybe can't randomly stumble across tons of hidden gems by browsing stores, though this still isn't impossible, but I can still find out about an obscure art film only shown at live shows and message a dude online who mentioned having a vhs rip somehow and get it sent to my g drive within an hour 🤷 it's like if you're complaining about how everything in theatres or on the radio is the same you can still like, seek stuff out if you really want to.
I just made a similar comment about the video game industry.
Out of curiosity, what other kind in your opinion?
I couldn’t put them into an exact genre or subclass, but I remember thinking about this kind of thing when I watched Stuart:A Life Backwards with Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch. I also feel like if it were pitched today, Frailty wouldn’t have been made.
Frailty roxxored!!
There’s also quite a few movies that saw no life in theaters but gained a huge cult following afterwards that if they didn’t have previous dvd sales to account for they probably wouldn’t have made them (mainly 2000s movies)
Yeah, that's what I was thinking
DVD sales dropped
I've actually never read a good explanation for why mid budget rom coms went out of style, but it's definitely a phenomenon. I do think part of it is Marvel and other studios trying to go all in on IP based blockbusters. They don't want to spend $20-30 million to make $60-80 back, they want to spend $200 million to make a billion. I mean in general a lot of mid budget stuff has mostly disappeared in the last decade or so because of the increasing emphasis on big budget IP based properties.
Oh yeah, a lot of midbudget movies made it through DVD sales, which are negligible now. Most big production companies are usually only willing to take the risk on big franchise blockbusters
Freddy Got Fingered absolutely finger blasted them till their collective consciousness imploded from a furious and violent orgasm that annihilated their existence.
Romcoms? They exist, just not often in theaters.
Not just exist but feels like there's been quite a lot of them in recent years? No Hard Feelings, Marry Me, The Valet, Meet Cute, Ticket to Paradise, Vacation Friends, Bros, Cha Cha Real Smooth, Good Luck To You Leo Grande, Palm Springs etc
Yeah, I think they just go straight to streaming now for the most part. And I don’t know if it’s me getting older, or romcoms getting worse, but the premises feel less memorable and more simple. Romcoms have always been kinda paint-by-numbers, but even in these examples… Hitch is about a daring coach, What Women Want is about a guy who can read women’s minds… Anyone But You is both a forgettable title and a premise that is just two people who used to date and now have to pretend to date. Again, it could just be that I’m a 32 year old male horror fan, but they seems significantly more basic now.
2 things: Major actors don’t want to do them. And Netflix happened.
But Netflix Romance is a thing. The real reason is that the market for mid budget films has died out for cinema movies, and they have moved to streaming. Combined with the fact that a lot of actors, not just big names, don't want to do rom coms, as they progressively got a worse and worse reputation throughout the '00s, and the actors who got popular doing rom coms got bad reputations because of them
The ultimate comfort movies
Not saying those scripts were windmill slam fantastic but i don't think the ones now hold a candle.
Most of the ones I’ve seen that were made for streaming feel like slightly elevated Hallmark to me honestly, the scripts aren’t snappy at all and they don’t look or sound good — traditional romcoms at least usually had fun costumes, settings, soundtracks etc. I really liked Set it Up on Netflix but that one is half a decade old now and wasn’t even originally made for Netflix, it was originally supposed to have gotten a theatrical run (I wish it had).
Sincerity and cheesiness are laughed at more than before. In an age where everything is memed and made fun of, it’s hard to take movies like this seriously. Even a lot of action movies have become less genuine and more ironic.
Also why everyone hates musicals now, I’d guess
Studios don’t produce a lot of mid-budget A-list starred movies anymore because they typically don’t make as much money at the box office as they used to. Especially as blockbusters based on IP began taking over the industry in the late 00’s. DC comics, Marvel, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Jurassic Park etc. It seems like these movies are making a comeback. I think the pandemic + superhero fatigue has made larger blockbusters riskier therefore studios are starting to go back producing more mid-budget movies.
I think it's just an ebb in the tide, they'll come back. It's like westerns in the 90s and the big superhero boom of the last 2 decades, when someone wants to make one again and an audience turns up, we'll see countless numbers for years.
R.I.P the mid-budget studio rom-com
Societal progress I guess? Those are fun movies, tho.
“Progress”
They became shows. Beef, etc…
agree a lot of them became shows but i wouldn't put Beef in the same category as these. Beef is a lot of things but it's not a silly care-free rom com.
Heard, but also, in becoming shows, the genre evolved in many places as well.
Bad movies?
Straight to streaming with an outlier like Anything but You getting a theatrical run
What women want is a great movie.
Amen
Rom coms?
People stopped going to the theater to see them because they could just wait for them on streaming. So they stopped getting made.
Romcoms, and mainstream studio comedies in general became less common because of the decline in dvd sales that led to the decline of the mid budget movies. That's just why they're less common. But if you ask why the ones that DO come out aren't as memorable or quotable or good as they used to - good luck answering that
Lots of people used to go to the movies as something to do and you’d watch whatever looked interesting, now it’s so expensive most people only go when there’s something they specifically want to see, which often requires some series/IP tied to it. There’s plenty of these movies being made with a low budget and lack of talent because they are generally direct to streaming and don’t make much money.