“Anyone but You” leaves viewers inspired to “drench yourself in words unspoken,” and “live your life with arms wide open.”
The newest rom-com, staring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, was released in theaters on December 22, 2023. It is about two people, Bea and Ben, who start off despising each other due to a miscommunication after a one-night stand, and are then forced to attend their mutual friend’s wedding in Australia.
Prior to the wedding, their parents pressure them to find a partner, and this continues throughout the trip. The two get so impatient with their parents that they come up with a plan to trick everyone into thinking they are dating. One thing lead to another, of course, and they start to develop real feelings for each other.
Filming for “Anyone but You” started in February 2023 in New South Wales, Australia. William Gluck directed the movie, and it was distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. To date the movie has made $119 million, but according to Github.com it will make $300 million before February. Other well-known actors and actresses play supporting roles, including Darren Barnet, Alexandra Shipp, Hadley Robinson, Dermot Mulroney, Charlee Fraser, and GaTa.
Though it’s based in modern day, many are shocked when they find out that “Anyone but You” is loosely based on Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.”
Both are about enemies who end up falling in love over time. The main characters even share the same name, Beatrice and Benedick. In the first couple minutes, a famous quote from Shakespeare, “Here’s much to do with hate but more with love,” appears in the background on the side of a building.
A memorable part of the movie, and one that’s garnering traction on social media, is the feature of the song “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield. It is used as a part of the plot in the movie and is also played during the final credits.
Recent TikTok feeds are filled with videos of creators dancing and skipping out of the movie theater with the song as a soundtrack. This is their way of expressing how much joy and happiness they have after seeing “Anyone but You.” To date, there have been over 47.2k posts of people doing this trend on TikTok.
Mya Schattin, a junior, thinks “Unwritten” went perfectly with the overall vibe of the movie.
“I think it matched the movie because it is a classic 2000 song that adds humor,” Mya said.
Recent rom-coms like “The Kissing Booth” and “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” were released straight to Netflix instead of theaters. Companies send movies straight to streaming because, during Covid, movie theaters closed and were barely making money.
According to TheNumbers.com, the number of movie tickets sold by movies theaters in the U.S. went down from 1,228,896,463 in 2019 to 211,112,593 in 2020.
Streaming platforms like Netflix pay the directors an exact amount for the movie, so it is often a financially safer option than releasing in theaters. Now that one can see any movie with just a subscription to Netflix, there is also less hype around seeing a movie as soon as it comes out in the theater.
Ashley Barnes, a junior, does not think the film would be as popular if it didn’t come out in theaters.
“I definitely think that if it went straight to Netflix, it would not have gotten as much traction as it did,” she said.
People used to make a day out of going to the movies, turning off their phones and completely investing themselves in the experience. Now you can pause the movie whenever you want, go on your phone, and get distracted by others in your home.
Mya Schattin thinks that since the film was released in theaters, she enjoyed it more.
“I think it made a difference that it is currently only in theaters because it makes it more of an experience to go see then watching it on your couch,” she said.