Reese Witherspoon slayed the big screen in her rom-com roles such as leading the cast in Legally Blonde, Just Like Heaven, and Sweet Home Alabama. But other than rom-coms you’d find in your streaming service schedule and on the Hallmark Channel, it seems like we don’t have too many of these genre flicks dominating showtimes much these days. The Oscar winner has her own theory on why the romantic-comedy genre felt dead for a hot minute, and it’s totally plausible.
As times change, the entertainment business changes with it. We used to watch movies at home through VHS tapes which changed to DVDs. By 2010, DVDs became outdated and replaced by streaming services where you can rent movies digitally or find rom-coms already available on your streaming platforms. In her interview with The New York Times, Reese Witherspoon shared her thinking about what exactly led to a downward shift in big-screen rom-coms:
When there’s a big economic shift in the media business, it’s not the superhero movies or independent films we lose out on. It’s the middle, which is usually where women live. The family drama. The romantic comedy. So I decided to fund a company to make those kinds of movies.
The Election actress has a great point about this. Marvel movies have successfully been making over $1 billion with its sequels and spinoffs released theatrically and on streaming, and the studio’s been profiting well. Independent movies may be low-budget and cater to a specific audience, but the film festival buzz and positive critical attention draw in a big fan following. Stuck in the middle are family dramas and rom-coms. You may not always see these kinds of movies get attention during awards season, but they bring about feel-good emotions in spades.
Compared to Reese Witherspoon waiting around for big-name studios to produce romantic comedies, she decided to take matters into her own hands in 2016 and create her production company Hello Sunshine, making movies for women about women. Many of Witherspoon’s best movies come from the female-driven company, like Wild, which follows the true story of a recovering addict hiking the Pacific Crest Trail on a journey of self-discovery.
With the acrewss believing more people are watching rom-coms than auteur films, she brought Hello Sunshine to Netflix. Six years after her rom-com Home Again, Reese Witherspoon returned to her rom-com roots co-starring with Ashton Kutcher in Your Place or Mine on your Netflix subscription. Hello Sunshine will also produce a comedy that will appear on your Amazon Prime subscription. Co-starring Will Ferrell, You’re Cordially Invited has the relatives of two brides fighting each other for a wedding venue that’s been double-booked. I have no doubt the witty talents of these two leads will make this upcoming comedy all the more memorable.
Reese Witherspoon made a totally plausible theory about rom-coms not cranking out in theaters the way they used to due to the economic shift of the superhero genre and indie films. While the best romantic comedies dominated the big screen during the ‘90s and ‘00s, we’re slowly making strides back to them. After all, Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney’s Anyone But You rom-com was a surprise box office success by making over $100 million. It shows the feel-good genre isn’t dead and audiences are still in the mood for love.
You can watch Witherspoon’s new comedy You’re Cordially Invited coming to Amazon Prime on January 30th, 2025.