"People will watch this one at home", says Helen Fielding, the author who created Bridget Jones. "If you're Bridget's generation it will be with a bottle of wine and a tub of ice cream. If you're Gen Z, it will be with mineral water and slippers. But it's a good movie to watch on the sofa." That's Fieldling's view of the rom-com. "Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy" the latest in the Jones' series debuted on February 13th via the second-tier streaming service Peacock.
The once highly valued film genre, the romance-comedy has fallen from audience grace. Making the careers of Julia Roberts, Reese Witherspoon, and Sandra Bullock, over the last decade moviegoers have abandoned the genre as these films now go directly to online streaming bypassing the cinema release completely.
What happened was that rom-coms became 'same old' and failed to reach the quality of an earlier generation of films. The funny thing is that outside the U.S. rom-coms are booming and still have theatrical releases which are followed by streaming. For the Jones' series of films, the global box office accounted for 89% of total ticket sales. Yet, in the U.S. online streaming is keeping the rom-com alive. Look to the Anne Hathaway led 'The Idea of You' or Amy Schumers' 'Kinda Pregnant' standout on the seemingly endless list of new streaming releases.
U.S. rom-com fans are hoping for a big-screen revival but to do so will require storylines that are inventive and captivating and cast with A-listers. Scott Meslow, author of 'The Rise and Fall of the Romantic Comedy' predicts, "In five years, the rom-com will be resurrected. People are charmed by these stories if they're unique and well made."
Well, I guess, it's a wait and see. Rom-coms draw a specific demographic so to be mainstream the storylines need to be broader than just - boy-meets-girl.
By: Jim Lavorato
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