20 HUGE Hit Movies NOBODY Saw Coming
9. Anyone But You
Even though it starred the red-hot pairing of Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, expectations for Anyone But You's box office run were middling-at-best.
After all, the theatrical rom-com has struggled massively in recent years, the perception being that the genre simply isn't "cinematic" enough to warrant a night out at the movies to most.
And so, rom-coms have increasingly been sent straight to streaming in the late 2010s, with the few that are actually sent to cinemas rarely making much of a dent at all.
Though it had a fairly lackluster opening weekend where it entered the box office charts at #4, it saw substantial increases in subsequent weekends, propelled forward by positive word-of-mouth, viral marketing on social media, and smart counter-programming by releasing around Christmas.
With a hefty $220 million haul against its $25 million budget, many saw Anyone But You as the long-awaited return of rom-coms at the box office, though it of course remains to be seen if many similar films can replicate this level of success.