After years of on-again, off-again relationships, it seems like Hollywood is finally getting back to love and the romance genre.
“Wuthering Heights,” a Victorian romance novel, breathed new life into the box office this weekend, thanks to stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. “People We Meet on Vacation,” an adaptation of Emily Henry’s popular novel, topped Netflix’s movie list after its January release. And “Heated Rivalry,” a romance book-turned-TV show about gay hockey, has become a cultural phenomenon just three months after its release.
Producers, agents and executives who work in the genre say that the recent boom in romance on TV and in film is largely due to studios realizing the potential of the core audiences the writers are helping to lure to the screens. Some studios are now offering six- to seven-figure deals to those writers, making them a hot commodity in Hollywood.
“Audiences want to feel longing,” says Lauren Levine, co-creator of bestselling romance author Colleen Hoover. The film adaptation of his novel, “It Ends With Us,” costing about $25 million to make, grossed over $351 million at the worldwide box office. His next film, “Reminders of Him,” which is being produced by Universal Pictures, will be released in March. (Comcast owns NBCUniversal, which is the parent company of NBC News.)
Millions of those followers are part of an online community known as “BookTok.” Avid readers, who often review and share their take on the latest releases, especially like to encounter the romance genre, or “dirty” books, which include explicit, steamy scenes. Their interest has helped some authors who have been around for years suddenly see their best-selling books almost overnight. It’s a community that gained momentum during the Covid-19 crisis, Levine said, when fans had no other way to communicate.
“A lot of people think, ‘Oh, it’s about sex,'” Levine says of the genre’s popularity. The books are awesome, yes, but that part isn’t that interesting. It’s about connection and longing and romance.”
Of course, romance adaptations are not new – long before “Only About Us,” many famous books – including “A Walk to Remember” (based on the famous novel by Nicholas Sparks), “Pride & Prejudice” (remade several times) and “Bridget Jones’s Diary” – had great commercial success in the ’90s and 200 years when they were adapted.
But others in the streaming industry credit it with helping to fill a void they say was left by traditional studios, which have spent the past decade doubling down on superhero adaptations and repurposing intellectual property.
“Audiences have always loved romance,” said Kira Goldberg, Netflix’s vice president of film. “That the theater studios stopped making them for a while, and the broadcasters took advantage of this opportunity, knowing that those old movies that people made when they were still old.”
From 2020 to the third quarter of 2025, shows and movies adapted from romance books were responsible for 4.5% of Netflix’s streaming revenue, according to Parrot Analytics, with the top shows being “Outlander” (which Netflix is taking after Starz), “Bridgerton” and “You.”
The broadcaster continues to invest heavily in romance to meet what Goldberg described as “underserved audience needs.”
On a cold Los Angeles night in January, Netflix hosted the summer-themed premiere of “People We Meet on Vacation.” Dozens of BookTokers were in attendance, having won tickets through fan sweepstakes. In addition to being among the first people to see the film, they were given special copies of the book, as well as tote bags to celebrate the film.
The next day, Netflix announced two upcoming movies based on other Henry novels, “A Funny Story” and “A Happy Place,” making Netflix the home of the unofficial Emily Henry Universe.
“Consumers are always asking us for romance-type titles,” said Mirabel Michaelson, an agent at UTA who represents Ali Hazelwood, author of “The Love Hypothesis.”
Hazelwood’s book began as part of a “Star Wars” fan fiction about the relationship between the characters Rey and Kylo Ren. Now it’s a movie from Amazon MGM this year.
And now, “people are chasing Ali for his next novel,” Michaelson said.
Among the keys to a successful rehearsal, producers say, is casting — though that doesn’t necessarily mean A-list stars.
“He wants to please the fans,” said WME agent Mary Pender-Coplan, who represents Henry. “You want the core audience to like it and that draws other people into the focus circles.”
Elizabeth Cantillon, who is producing “The Love Hypothesis,” likens the responsibility she has to the book’s ardent fans to how she felt when she was an executive at Sony Pictures directing the James Bond films and the original Daniel Craig franchise.
“My brothers called me and said, ‘Don’t mess it up,'” Cantillon said of casting someone to play the British spy. “We had to respect the fans, but we couldn’t just make a movie for the fans.”
In the case of “The Love Hypothesis,” the filmmakers chose a casting that pleased fans of the book, casting Tom Bateman, the husband of Daisy Ridley, who played the role of Rey in the “Star Wars” movies, to play the male role.
“That’s not why we dropped him,” Cantillon said of Bateman’s connection to the source. “But when we do it, people go crazy.”
Typically, romantic adaptations have budgets in the $25 to $40 million range, making them a cheaper option than many competing genres (although the budget for “Wuthering Heights,” directed by Emerald Fennell, is closer to $80 million). That would remove some of the responsibility of casting top stars and allow filmmakers to focus on the chemistry and authenticity of the source material.
The romance genre has also expanded to include “romance titles,” which combine romance and fantasy, such as Rebecca Yarros’ “Fourth Wing,” which Michael B. Jordan’s production company is developing as an Amazon Prime series, and “Quicksilver,” Cantillon’s adaptation for Netflix.
Cantillon said he believes part of the evidence for the genre’s renewed interest comes from audiences rewatching old romantic comedies, such as the films of writer-directors Nancy Meyers and Nora Ephron, over and over again on the air.
“They’re playing really well, and they’re rewatchable,” Cantillon said. “But doesn’t every generation want their own love story?”
Meyers, widely considered the queen of the romance genre, hasn’t acted in a movie since 2015’s “The Intern.” Warner Bros. this month he greenlit his next project, a romantic comedy that will hit theaters on Christmas Day 2027.
Meyers seems more than happy to be back at it, writing on Instagram about the news: “See you in the movies!”
