‘Anyone But You’ could spark a rom-com renaissance in Hollywood

Released just before the crowded Christmas movie season, Sony’s “Anyone But You” seemed destined to be anything but a box-office hit — especially after it tallied just $6 million in ticket sales during its opening weekend.

However, the film’s box-office success was as much of a slow burn as the romance between its main characters played by rising stars Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney.

In the seven weeks since, the romantic comedy has tallied $170 million globally, including $80 million from domestic theaters, according to data from Comscore. The film had a reported budget of just $25 million.

A sleeper hit at the box office, the film is a “healthy sign” for the romantic comedy genre and other mid-budget Hollywood flicks, said Scott Meslow, author of “From Hollywood With Love: The Rise and Fall (and Rise Again) of the Romantic Comedy.” But it remains to be seen if other rom-coms can repeat its success.

As studios chased big-budget superhero flicks after the success of Marvel’s interconnected cinematic universe, Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy and DC Studios’ “Man of Steel,” the rom-com found itself on the cutting room floor — and then as padding for streaming services.

Between 2004 and 2010, Hollywood consistently released between 15 and 25 romantic comedy or romance films each year. But from 2011 through last year, there were less than 15 new rom-com or romance releases per year, with most years falling below 10.

Meslow said there was no rom-com “kill shot,” a film or series of films that sparked the decline in theatrical releases of the genre.

Instead, it came after media companies changed their priorities.

“Studios are, at the end of the day, businesses,” Will Gluck, the writer-director of “Anything But You” and the filmmaker behind “Easy A” and “Friends with Benefits,” told CNBC. “So, if they start to see a certain thing is successful, they’re going to try to replicate that success. So, I…