Once sidelined, romantic comedies rise again this summer season

LOS ANGELES -- Summer is always full of action and superhero pics, but this year a once dormant yet utterly adored genre is coming back in a big way: the romantic comedy. After a 2017 without any from a major studio, this summer is proving to be a re-birth for this lost Hollywood staple with five notable releases, including "Crazy Rich Asians " and a "Mamma Mia! " sequel.

The reasons for the genre's decline are many. A post-recession focus on international audiences, franchises and superheroes have helped to push rom-coms off the priority list for studios. Also, after a long and fruitful run in the late 1980s through the 2000s, enthusiasm started to wane. They had become stale. There were a few outliers, of course, such as Amy Schumer's "Trainwreck," but the big studio rom-coms became derivative, lazy and dull.

"They didn't reflect the way that society was changing. They were all about white, straight couples. They fell back on the conventions that define the genre," said Erin Carlson, author of the book "I'll Have What She's Having: How Nora Ephron's Three Iconic Films Saved the Romantic Comedy" and an upcoming book about the films of Meryl Streep. "People just got tired of them."

A death, of sorts, was necessary for the genre to rise again with a new set of voices. It didn't hurt "The Big Sick" made a splash at the box office and went on to get a screenwriting Oscar nomination -- the kind of prestigious recognition rarely afforded to classic rom-coms without a "Silver Linings Playbook" edge.

"('The Big Sick') showed that people still want a good rom-com at the multiplex, but they want one that pushes the genre forward in new, interesting ways that reflect real life today, not tired tropes of yesterday," Carlson said.

And indeed, the rom-coms of 2018 are continuing that forward movement. Earlier in the year there was Paramount's "Book Club" and its focus on older women, 20th Century Fox's "Love, Simon's" gay, teen protagonist, and the bilingual "Overboard," which has become the highest-grossing film for Pantelion Films.