People say the romantic comedy is dead and to them, I say: Look harder. Love actually is all around, and there are more new rom-coms than you think. They just sometimes happen to be direct to streaming service and your couch, where the cabernet is by the bottle and the popcorn is microwavable, rather than steaming up (and cracking up) your local movie theater. That's annoying and concerning, don't get me wrong. It's so much more fun to laugh with a crowd and then, a month later, relive those moments at home on your umpteenth rewatch. But it doesn't mean that Hollywood has abandoned the best genre.
Movies are never going to run out of hilariously contrived ways for love interests to meet and then not *quite* fall in love until the very end because of all these pesky obstacles in the way of their true feelings. It's simply not going to happen! Rom-coms are always a little bit predictable, but they're always a little bit different too. That's a feature, not a bug. Any connoisseur knows all that really matters is when the actors have ~chemistry~. You can love a trope or hate a trope all you want, but it's all in the execution.
This year is off to a promising start with some upcoming 2023 romantic comedies that feature tried and true movie stars you've loved for ages. There are some adaptations that can guide your book club's next pick, as well as some original stories that will keep you guessing even though you're kinda-sorta already 100 percent sure you know who's going to end up with who.
Check out our list of the 7 best romantic comedies of 2023 below:
1. Shotgun Wedding
Release date: January 27 on Amazon Prime Video
Destination weddings come with a lot of added pressure on the bride and groom despite a gorgeous setting. What if you get cold feet after all of your friends and family have traveled to another country? And what if, on top of that, all of your friends and family are in a hostage situation? It's too much!!!!
2. Your Place Or Mine
Release date: February 10 on Netflix
It's like The Holiday and When Harry Met Sally made a rom-com baby.
3. At Midnight
Release date: February 10 on Paramount+
*Taylor Swift voice* meet me at midnight....
4. Somebody I Used To Know
Release date: February 10 on Amazon Prime Video
Alison Brie stars in this rom-com she co-wrote with her husband Dave Franco. It looks like it has all the tropes you know (a workaholic woman returns to her hometown and reconnects with an ex, you know the drill) but is modern AF and maybe even polyamorous??
5. Red, White, And Royal Blue
Release date: TBD on Amazon Prime Video
Casey McQuiston's "enemies to fake friendship to lovers" book about a Prince of England and a First Son falling in love is coming to the big screen. Or, since it's Amazon Studios, maybe just the small screen. You know what I mean.
6. Elemental
Release date: June 2023
Did Pixar make a romantic comedy? Yep. So you're telling me I'm going to cry my eyes out? Well, so be it.
7. Love Again
Release date: TBD 2023
Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Sam Heughan star in this romantic comedy with a morbid (but in a sweet way) twist. Priyanka plays a widow who starts texting her dead fiancé's phone as a therapy exercise, and Sam plays the man who gets assigned the dead man's number. It's based on the novel Text for You by Sofie Kramer, which was made into a German film in 2016.
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This article originally appeared on Cosmopolitan.com. Minor edits have been made by Cosmo.ph editors.