Just when we thought the rom-com had edged its way from endangered to extinct, The Big Sick has come along and proved that they still exist (and can still be invigorated with fresh perspective). However, this is a huge exception. It isn’t even that we don’t get really good rom coms anymore – there have been next to none to reach the Norah Ephron cut for ages – but we aren’t even served the fluffy, slightly cheesy ones.

The closest thing we tend seem to have gotten in recent years are crude comedies with a little romance thrown in. Essentially since Hugh Grant stopped doing many films, Matthew McConaughey had his McConaissance and Drew Barrymore has spent more time as a TV zombie, the genre seems to be lacking. The occasional one we have had hasn’t gone down well – rom-coms in general are a rare species, decent ones are even rarer, and great ones are like unicorns. There’s also been a consistent attempt at the ensemble rom-com this decade, looking to emulate the Love Actually formula, but never quite reaching that standard.

Perhaps the endangerment of the studio rom-com is merely symptomatic of the mid-budget film dying out. Rom-coms are almost never high budget (unless they are something like a high-concept sci-fi hybrid), and whilst they can be low budget (enter indies such as The Big Sick which often provide the most interesting and different takes on the genre), the more generic, or more typical ‘Hollywood’ rom-coms often boast big stars, and thus command a decently sized budget. With studios effectively turning into superhero-movie-machines for the most part, churning out multiple franchise and extended-universe centric movies per year (plus the occasional original big budget ideas), rom-coms, and other mid-budget fare, seem to have fallen off the slate. However, arguably, there has been a small, creeping return of the mid-budget film (mostly in the slow thriller-esque genre) in the past year, so perhaps this apparent increase may lead to the return of the rom-com.

Rom-coms are often (unfortunately) seen as a guilty pleasure to a lot of people. Whilst there are definitely rom-coms that display top quality filmmaking and are remembered as some of the best films made, it is also a genre that contains films which are incredibly predictable and formulaic, but due to their charm, are still watchable and enjoyable (many of these types come from the dumping of romcoms from the 2000s – they weren’t all going to be diamonds, and many won’t endure). It is one of the genres people are most forgiving of – watching a rom-com you will happily accept the cheesy or the fluffy without it harming the film at all – and whilst the ones that rise above this level aren’t the majority, we aren’t even treated to the earnest and rose-tinted ones anymore. [On a separate note, the term rom-com does not equate to mediocrity or suggest substandard filmmaking – it means a film that is both romantic and a comedy. Nothing more, nothing less – it is not an insult]. Maybe the assumption is that in our current climate, the world is too cynical to throw away their cares and sit through something deemed a little shallow, yet is still brilliantly entertaining. With many genres shifting into a more serious gear in recent years (think spies, superheroes), maybe the rom-coms have been forced to morph into dramas. However, if you think of how many people for whom Richard Curtis’, Nancy Meyers’ and Norah Ephron’s films are DVD staples, and how this genre arguably contains the majority of the most-rewatched films, there seems to be a flaw in that logic. Maybe the world could do with a little more blind optimism and escapism in it. No matter how precious people are about their favourites, I’m sure there’s always room for new additions to the rotation.

It is a genre that used to be a mainstay in multiplexes, a guaranteed money-maker, but financially it may even seem a little too modest a box office next to the current tent-poles where a billion dollars seems to be the expected goal. It is still a wildly popular DVD choice, but is sadly lacking in the cinemas. We aren’t asking for much – we don’t need them all to be above the mark, but some fresh blood would be nice to break up the crude (often mediocre) comedies and franchise films we are currently inundated with. Maybe The Big Sick’s critical praise and solid box office performance will indicate a return to a missed genre.