Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney actually made a sleeper-hit movie with Anyone But You. It ended up serving as a reminder that studios used to make these kinds of low-budget or mid-budget romantic comedies all the time – they were always rated PG or PG-13, they never needed greenscreens or CGI, and everything was dependent on two actors’ on-screen chemistry and a half-decent script. If the studio had made Anyone But You in 2001, it would have still cost the same ($25 million) and it would have starred Kate Hudson and Josh Lucas. Well, because half-decent rom-coms are a rarity these days, Anyone But You has now crossed $100 million at the box office. When Glen Powell was at Sundance, he took a little bit of a victory lap.

Glen Powell and his “Hit Man” co-writer and director Richard Linklater stopped by the Variety Studio presented by Audible at the Sundance Film Festival, where Powell celebrated his role in reviving the romantic-comedy genre. “Anyone But You,” his Sony-backed rom-com with Sydney Sweeney, has earned $64 million at the domestic box office and crossed the $100 million mark worldwide. It’s a huge win for the $25 million movie at a time when many people were writing off the genre as dead.

“At least for me, I’ve always been a fan of movies in general and I always find it silly when certain actors diminish certain genres,” Powell said. “At its best execution, it gives an audience such joy and such fun, and as an actor you do get to play a lot of gears. To kind of scoff at a genre and look down on it is kind of silly.”

“For me, ‘Anyone But You’ was such a treat to see audiences dance out of the theater and feel so happy after watching a movie,” he continued. “To see the box office not just stick but grow has been such a cool lesson that sometimes the genres that have been forgotten are the ones audiences are craving the most.”

[From Variety]

“Sometimes the genres that have been forgotten are the ones audiences are craving the most.” He’s right, but I fear that this is the first time studios will realize it, now that a white man has said it. Actresses and producers have been saying this for years, that studios don’t have to endlessly sink $200 million into some action/comic-book production, you can actually invest in mid-budget rom-coms with an eye towards the female audience. Barbie also showed the power of the female audience, and that if you explicitly make an enjoyable, fun movie for women, they will come to the theaters. Also, here’s a sad little fact: Anyone But You is now the highest-grossing R-rated rom-com since Bridget Jones’s Baby in 2016!!

Also: props to my Virgo sis Sydney Sweeney. Anyone But You was her first outing as an executive producer. Her production company put this together and (much like Margot Robbie and Barbie) she deserves a lot of credit for simply wanting to make a low-budget genre movie.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.