What do we want? Rom-coms! When do we want ’em? As we’re sobbing over our pathetic love lives!
That’s what the people are shouting — with their wallets. Last weekend, “Crazy Rich Asians” came out on top at the box office, raking in $26 million. The movie about a woman jetting off to Singapore to meet her boyfriend’s wealthy family has a sequel in the works already. Then there’s “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again,” the second movie in the ABBA-goes-Greek series. It’s made $111 million so far this year.
That’s not chump change. The appetite for romantic comedy films is real and ever-present. And yet, by and large, we’re starved of this beloved genre nowadays.
But, I reckon that rom-coms should prove more popular than ever. Because dating is bleaker than ever. The mysteries of the heart have been reduced to meticulously posed profile pictures, swipes and algorithms. World-famous celebrities don’t just walk into your British bookshop and kick off a whirlwind affair anymore. All right, that never really happened. But lovebirds did, at least, used to meet in person.
The meet-cute has become the tweet-cute.
If there’s even a meeting at all. A Gallup survey showed that 64 percent of millennials were single in 2014 — up 10 percent from 2004. That means that 64 percent of millennials are sitting at home watching “The Holiday” with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s.
The decade they grew up during, the ’90s, was an embarrassment of lovey-dovey riches: “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” “Runaway Bride,” “Notting Hill.” (Basically, the collected works of Julia Roberts.) But also “Sleepless in Seattle,” “You’ve Got Mail” and “The Wedding Singer.” When it comes to viewers’ affection, these movies are modern classics.
Things started to change in the aughts. They began swimmingly with the perfect “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” but gradually the output tapered off in favor of superhero movies and anything starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Today, most “romantic” comedies are boozy party movies such as “Trainwreck.” Or about another topic altogether, like “Bridesmaids,” in which Chris O’Dowd shows up occasionally and flirts. The latest trend is rom-coms made for camp value, such as Netflix’s “A Christmas Prince.”
But “Crazy Rich Asians,” a smart, thoughtful, hugely funny — and, yes, romantic — movie, gives me hope. At the screening I attended, audiences were applauding the characters, and were much more engaged than during “Solo: A Star Wars Story” or “The Equalizer 2.”
When Ani DiFranco sang “Wishin’ and Hopin’ ” for the opening credits of “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” she wasn’t dreamin’ and prayin’ about Ant-Man.
