Are typical ROM COMS kind of dead?

[forg]

I imagine a Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan reunion romcom has potential to do well again even if they're near 60 already. if material is appealing enough. Meryl Streep's It's Complicated was a hit just a few years ago. Larry Crowne was really disappointing though for a Tom Hanks-Julia Roberts romcom because it was really uneventful and looked dry

[grim22]

http://screenrobot.com/romantic-chick-flick-rip/

 

 

 

The romantic chick flick: RIP

Hollywood has looked a little different recently. Those who argued that Bridesmaids might herald a kind of revolution in the film world, finally making a space for mainstream comedies about women, are slowly but surely being proved right. Following on from the smash success of Bridesmaids, we’ve had last year’s fantastic The Heat and now The Other Woman. Three films might seem like a fairly limited revolution, but these films represent a pretty drastic break with previous Hollywood standards. In these films, women dominate and men are pushed to the margins, and they don’t so much pass as smash the Bechdel test.

The rise of the female comedy can be put down to a few factors. It may be that Hollywood has simply grown out of the overly saccharine, boy-meets-girl-then-there’s-some-kind-of-drama-oh-it’s-all-fine stage. The traditional romantic chick flick often bares little more than a passing resemblance to the lives of women today, and what’s more, many don’t want their lives to reflect this narrow representation of success, romantic or otherwise. In 2014, we’ve all stopped believing in the fairy-tale ending most of these films rigidly stick to.

 

[BoxOfficeFangrl]

How many forms of entertainment have been declared "dead" before they make a roaring comeback? In TV, the sitcom and drama have been declared dead at different points in the past 30 years. Wasn't Disney Animation buried for sure at one point, too? Bloggers should hold off on the obits.

Edited May 6, 2014 by BoxOfficeChica

[Mojoguy]

How many forms of entertainment have been declared "dead" before they make a roaring comeback? In TV, the sitcom and drama have been declared dead at different points in the past 30 years. Wasn't Disney Animation buried for sure at one point, too? Bloggers should hold off on the obits.

WDAS was never buried, it was just in hibernation for a while between 1999 to 2008.

[Ando918]

If one looks at the colossal box office numbers of The Hunger Games series....or even the strong box office results of Angelina Jolie action movies like Salt and Wanted, and now with the Divergent series, it does seem like audiences (male and female) are getting more interested in action heroines, and less interested in Julia Roberts/Meg Ryan/Kate Hudson/Katherine Heigl type scripts where they revolve around weddings, fashion, taxis, shoes, and are set in Manhattan.  Yeah, Julia had a few enormous hits in the 90s that would have translated to 250 domestic today, but those days are gone now.  They aren't completely dead because many types of films have a lot of romance and comedy - but the 27 Dresses types of movies are pretty much dead.

[La Binoche]

Yes, because most sucked so bad. When was the last big one? The Proposal in 2009? They'll make a comeback eventually, though. 

[GuardiaStar]

Yeah the typical ones are pretty much so, but I really loved how Silver Linings Playbook at least for me changed the typical, cliche romance movies. I have nothing against them, but I got to say the rom-coms that are pretty generic are dead. If you have a decent story, or even great dialogue for a rom-com it's not a bad thing at all, it's just the oh-so-typical romance movies I just never see to be honest.

[Ando918]

Yeah the typical ones are pretty much so, but I really loved how Silver Linings Playbook at least for me changed the typical, cliche romance movies. I have nothing against them, but I got to say the rom-coms that are pretty generic are dead. If you have a decent story, or even great dialogue for a rom-com it's not a bad thing at all, it's just the oh-so-typical romance movies I just never see to be honest.

The typical ones are set in Manhattan, have a lot of taxis, and the female protagonist usually works for a publishing company, magazine company, etc.  And many scenes set during weddings.

[filmlover]

The typical ones are set in Manhattan, have a lot of taxis, and the female protagonist usually works for a publishing company, magazine company, etc.  And many scenes set during weddings.

LOL now there's an overly generalized description.

[The Futurist]

The last succesful one was the one with Tatum and Rachel McAdams.

[filmlover]

The last succesful one was the one with Tatum and Rachel McAdams.

?

 

The Vow was a romantic drama, not a romcom. Which further illustrates the dire state of the romcom genre.

[Ando918]

Someone wrote that the rom-com genre started to die when all of these bro-mance movies started popping up in the last 5-10 years. Judd Apatow comedies, Wedding Crashers, and now with a Kevin Hart wedding movie coming in January, and last January there was that bro-mance movie with Zac Efron.  They have stopped hiring actresses for the leads and now instead have guys in the leads where all they do is talk about relationships, dating, and weddings.

[Jonwo]

I think romcoms will make a comeback, it'll only take one to be successful to revitalise the genre.

Edited November 16, 2014 by Jonwo

[forg]

The last Hollywood romcom hit (excluding Silver Linings Playbook which had the awards factor to help its box office) is I think Crazy Stupid Love, it didn't reach 100M though but it had a leggy run to 80M+ gross and that was a good movie although it's not the typical boy meets girl type

 

Romantic dramas though are still doing good though with the success of Nicholas Sparks adaptations (although the latest didn't do well) and The Fault in Our Stars.

Edited November 16, 2014 by forg

[filmlover]

Someone wrote that the rom-com genre started to die when all of these bro-mance movies started popping up in the last 5-10 years. Judd Apatow comedies, Wedding Crashers, and now with a Kevin Hart wedding movie coming in January, and last January there was that bro-mance movie with Zac Efron.  They have stopped hiring actresses for the leads and now instead have guys in the leads where all they do is talk about relationships, dating, and weddings.

...And?

[Jonwo]

I'm surprised no one has done a romantic comedy that is a homage to the genre, not a parody similar to how Enchanted was a homage to Disney and Super 8 was a homage to Spielberg's early films

[TalismanRing]

Bad writing, poor humor and a lack of actual romance in Romantic Comedy has certainly helped in trying to kill the genre.

 

Romance wouldn't be one of the best selling genres in books if women were no longer interested, and while there are dramatic, paranormal, historical, action, mystery set romances there are still a lot of comedic romances being looked for and read.

 

Instead I'd day, women seem to be tired of bad and mediocre romantic comedies that are all cliche with no real story or characterization that aren't funny and least of all romantic. Or maybe that's just me.  It's not as if there haven't been many wonderful ones, spanning many sub genres and featuring some of our best actors, directors and writers to show Hollywood how to make them though they've seemingly forgotten how.

 

It Happened On Night, Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story, too many brilliant 1930s screwball romantic comedies to list them all, Shop Around The Corner,  Adam's Rib, The African Queen, Born Yesterday, Pillow Talk, The Apartment, Teacher's Pet, Breakfast At Tiffanys, Roman Holiday, How To Steal A Million, Annie Hall, Tootsie, The Princess Bride, Ground Hog Day, Broadcast News, When Harry Met Sally, Bull Durham, Roxanne, Say Anything, Ten Things I Hate About You, The Wedding Singer, Bridget Jones Diary, Amelia...

 

That's a rich history that Hollywood seems uninterested in expanding upon.

 

Someone mentioned that Bromance has replaced romance in comedic movies and I think that's a good point.  I disliked 22JS but the entire movie is the old template for a romantic comedy and would be a rom com if Hollywood could actually a bring itself to make one about two men instead of just playing the wink, wink, nudge, nudge I love you in an uncomfortably obsessive and intimate you complete me but no-homo bro way movie, or even did something a bit less box office challenging and cast a woman in one of the roles. 

 

Hollywood though also seems to have forgotten how to write witty mature adult comedy in any form, and romance seems to be something that is only written in any quantity for the Young Adult audience or the Nicholas Sparks combo of treacle and tragedy that masquerades as romance.  So a genre based on wit and romance seems sadly doubly doomed.

Edited November 16, 2014 by TalismanRing

[Cochofles]

All it will take is, in spite of a bad script (which, let's be honest, has never kept a romcom from being a hit) is either a truly incandescent, luminous actress to come along and steal audiences' heart (like Julia did in Pretty Woman or Sandra did in While Your Were Sleeping) or potent, white hot chemistry between two leads that nobody can ignore (Ryan Gosling/Rachel MacAdams in The Notebook, Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail and When Harry Met Sally). It will happen eventually.

[filmlover]

All it will take is, in spite of a bad script (which, let's be honest, has never kept a romcom from being a hit) is either a truly incandescent, luminous actress to come along and steal audiences' heart (like Julia did in Pretty Woman or Sandra did in While Your Were Sleeping) or potent, white hot chemistry between two leads that nobody can ignore (Ryan Gosling/Rachel MacAdams in The Notebook, Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail and When Harry Met Sally). It will happen eventually.

I think you mean Sleepless in Seattle (or, more likely, Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally). 

Edited November 16, 2014 by filmlover

[Lordmandeep]

The issue that they need to be better but there is a big demand for them still.

 

Even Katherine Heigl's terribile Rom-Com were widely seen. 

 

 

However I do agree there is more demand these days for female film like Divergent and female action films from the younger female audiences.

 

Furthermore younger female audiences compared to the past are growing more attached to traditionally male dominated genres like Comic book movies. Clearly demonstrated by the huge interest in marvel films by female audiences.

 

 

However I still think a lot of middle age women still want the stereotypical love story. 

Edited November 16, 2014 by Lordmandeep