Romance films are movies or TV shows that tell stories about love between main characters. These stories usually focus on emotions, feelings, and the ways people fall in love. They often show the journey of characters as they go through dating, getting married, or facing challenges in their relationships. The main goal of these films is to explore the search for love. Sometimes, characters face problems like money issues, illness, discrimination, family disagreements, or personal struggles. These films also show how everyday life, temptations, and differences between people can affect relationships.

Romantic films often talk about different types of love, such as love at first sight, love between young or older people, unrequited love, love that is too strong, love that is pure, love that is not allowed, love between friends, love that is passionate, love that involves giving up something, love that causes conflict, and love that ends in sadness. These films help viewers imagine happy endings where characters solve their problems, say they love each other, and live happily, often shown by a final kiss. In TV shows, romantic relationships may take time to develop over many episodes or involve different characters in separate love stories.

Screenwriter and scholar Eric R. Williams says Romance Films are one of eleven major categories in his system for classifying movies. The other categories include action, crime, fantasy, horror, science fiction, comedy, sports, thriller, war, and western.

Decline in romance films

The percentage of romance films compared to all movies made has dropped a lot in recent years. According to data from IMDb, romance films made up 34.8% of all movies released in 2000, but this number fell to 8.6% in the most recent year reported.

Romance films have appeared in movies in a pattern that repeats over time. They were a large part of movies made from the 1940s through the early 1960s, but then their share decreased. Over the last three decades of the 20th century, the genre slowly increased again, reaching its highest point in the early 2000s. However, this trend has changed in more recent years. Additionally, the use of romance as a secondary story in movies of other types, such as action films, also seems to be decreasing.

Subgenres

The term "chick flick" refers to romance movies that are mostly aimed at a female audience. While many romance films are targeted at women, this is not always the main feature of a romance film. A "chick flick" does not always focus on romance, involve romantic relationships, or center around characters in love. These terms are not the same. Examples of chick flicks include Gilda, The Red Shoes, Sense and Sensibility, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Dirty Dancing, The Notebook, Dear John, A Walk to Remember, Thelma & Louise, Fifty Shades of Grey, Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, and Romeo + Juliet.

Also called epic romance, this type of story takes place in a historical setting and often includes events like war, revolution, or tragedy. Examples of these films are Gone with the Wind, Doctor Zhivago, Reds, Titanic, A Very Long Engagement, Atonement, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, and Cold War.

Paranormal romance is a movie genre where humans form romantic relationships with supernatural beings, such as vampires, ghosts, or characters with psychic powers. This genre began in books and later moved to films, especially after the success of The Twilight Saga adaptations of Stephenie Meyer’s novels. By 2007–2008, many paranormal romance films were being made, often based on books. Examples include The Twilight Saga, Warm Bodies, Vampire Academy, I Am Dragon, and The Shape of Water.

Romantic comedies are movies with funny, light-hearted stories about love and relationships. The humor is usually verbal or situational, not slapstick. Examples include City Lights, A Night at the Opera, It Happened One Night, His Girl Friday, The Philadelphia Story, Roman Holiday, The Big Sick, Enough Said, Lost In Translation, To All the Boys I've Loved Before, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Say Anything…, Moonstruck, In Summer We Must Love, As Good as It Gets, Something's Gotta Give, When Harry Met Sally…, Annie Hall, Manhattan, The Apartment, and Pablo and Carolina.

Romantic dramas are stories where a challenge prevents two people from being together. Music is often used to express emotions, but the ending usually does not show if the characters end up together. Examples from before 2000 include Man's Way with Women, Casablanca, María Candelaria, Pride & Prejudice, Appointment with Happiness, Turkish Delight (1973 film), Wakeful Eyes, Among the Ruins, The River of Love, Dearer than my Life, Love Story, Paris and Love, Featureless Men, Coming Home, Daughters of the Dust, Like Water for Chocolate, Sommersby, The Bridges of Madison County, The English Patient, Shakespeare in Love, An Officer and a Gentleman, Saptapadi, Hello, That's Me!, and Cinema Paradiso.

Examples from the 21st century include Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, Sideways, Memoirs of a Geisha, Slumdog Millionaire, Up in the Air, The Artist, Gloria Bell, and Malcolm & Marie. Director Richard Linklater created the Before trilogy, which includes Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight. Kasautii Zindagii Kay is an Indian romantic drama television series from the 2000s.

Same-sex romantic dramas that explore LGBTQ+ themes include Brokeback Mountain, Blue is the Warmest Colour, Carol, Moonlight, and Call Me by Your Name.

Romantic fantasies are stories that mix romance with fantasy elements. Examples include The Lady Eve, Top Hat, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Singin' in the Rain, Groundhog Day, Enchanted, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Knowing, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Midnight in Paris, Her, and The Shape of Water.

Romantic musicals (or musical romances) are films where love stories are told through songs and dances. This genre began on Broadway and later became popular in movies, partly due to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s works. Examples include South Pacific, West Side Story and its 2021 remake, Grease, High School Musical, Across the Universe, Moulin Rouge!, the Mamma Mia! franchise, Sunshine on Leith, and La La Land.

Romantic thrillers combine romance with suspense and mystery. Examples include Desire, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo, The Crying Game, The Bodyguard, Unfaithful, Wicker Park, The Phantom of the Opera, The Tourist, and The Adjustment Bureau.

Film types, macro genres and the filmmaker's voice

The screenwriters' taxonomy adds more categories than "subgenre" when discussing films. It argues that all Hollywood films with stories can be divided into comedies or dramas, called a "film type." This system also lists fifty "macro genres," which can be combined with the romance super genre. Using this method, a film like Gone with the Wind would be classified as a dramatic (type), historical/family (macro genres), and romance (genre), instead of just a historical romance. Similarly, The Notebook would be labeled as dramatic (type), disease (macro genre), and romance (genre), instead of simply a romantic drama.

Musicals are considered one choice for a filmmaker's "voice" because characters singing does not change the story or characters—it only changes how the story and characters are shown. For example, a romance film like Grease would be classified as dramatic (type), romance (super genre), high school/coming of age (macro genres), and musical (voice), rather than simply a "musical romance."