The 200 Best Romantic Comedies of All Time
Hooking up? No problem. “Meet cute” at the book shop? Happens all the time. Finding the right one, falling in love, and getting married? What else are you gonna do? But compiling the ultimate list of the Freshest romantic comedies of all time? It’s complicated.
For our list of the 200 best romantic comedies of all time, we searched high and low throughout movie history for every permutation of (hilarious) courtship and love captured on camera. We have the dazzling wit of the early studio system (His Girl Friday, Bringing Up Baby), the realistic cynicism of the ’70s (Annie Hall, The Goodbye Girl), and the sweeping romance in-between (The Apartment, Roman Holiday). There was plenty to find in the John Hughes, teen-driven era (Say Anything…, Pretty in Pink), and the bubbly ’90s decade that followed (Groundhog Day, Four Weddings and a Funeral, While You Were Sleeping). Then we dabbled in 21st century raunch (Knocked Up) and twee ([500] Days of Summer), leading into our current era of new voices declaring that they too are entitled to their own messy relationship stories (The Big Sick, Crazy Rich Asians).
Movies are listed Certified Fresh movies first, followed by the Fresh-hearted. How did we reach our rankings? Because the rom-com has been around for so long and with masterpieces reaching back 100 years, first we said each movie needed at least 20 reviews. Then to make sure the selections played well to general audiences, each movie needed to also have a positive Audience Score (even if they’re Certified Fresh), which knocked out some surprise films, like About a Boy. Hey, don’t blame us – y’all voted! Finally, any more released after 2016 (when we revamped our critics pool and criteria) needed to be Certified Fresh to make the cut.
Ready to dive into the sea of love? Then continue on with open arms into Rotten Tomatoes’ 200 best romantic comedies of all time! — (Alex Vo)
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