60 Best Romantic Comedy Movies of All Time

Modern dating—it’s a love-hate relationship. Dating apps are great for meeting new people, but whatever happened to the classic meet-cute? Or showing up to your crush’s house blasting music outside of their window? Or even falling for someone simply from hearing them on the radio? Maybe that’s the love for rom-coms talking, but can you blame us? Everyone loves a happy ending. Even though they don’t quite make rom-coms like they used to, we have plenty of classics and new additions to fall in love with over and over again with some of the most iconic moments in film. And now that streaming services have given us hopeless romantics unlimited access to endless hours of friends turned lovers, enemies turned lovers, and everything in between, we can laugh (and cry) our little hearts out in the comfort of our own homes.

50 Best Romantic Comedy Movies That’ll Make You Believe in Love at First Watch

Modern dating—it’s a love-hate relationship. Dating apps are great for meeting new people, but whatever happened to the classic meet-cute? Or showing up to your crush’s house blasting music outside of their window? Or even falling for someone simply from hearing them on the radio? Maybe that’s the love for rom-coms talking, but can you blame us? Everyone loves a happy ending. Even though they don’t quite make rom-coms like they used to, we have plenty of classics and new additions to fall in love with over and over again with some of the most iconic moments in film. And now that streaming services have given us hopeless romantics unlimited access to endless hours of friends turned lovers, enemies turned lovers, and everything in between, we can laugh (and cry) our little hearts out in the comfort of our own homes.

Whether you’re a single pringle on Valentine’s Day or looking for a chill date night, it’s a good thing that you ended up here. Time to get cozy with some of the best romantic comedy movies of all time! Although the list just scratches the surface of all that the genre has to offer, here are a handful of our favorite stories that prove true love can be found without even having to swipe right.

60 Best Romantic Comedy Movies of All Time

Cute, funny or a teensy bit cheesy, these rom-coms make us catch feelings in all the best ways.

The meet-cute. The heartstring-tugging speech. The kiss in the softly falling snow. The moment when you think they hate each other. When it comes to romantic movies, the rom-com formula doesn’t always get the respect it deserves. And that’s a shame, especially since these movies have delivered so many of our favorite iconic film moments. “I’ll have what she’s having,” anyone? And now that we’ve got streaming services serving up decades of our favorites (check out these romantic comedies on Netflix for starters) we can laugh and cry to our little hearts’ content.

When it comes to finding the best romantic comedy movies of all time, we’ve got an embarrassment of riches on our hands. How can you choose one “you-had-me-at-hello” speech over another “I want the rest of my life to start as soon as possible?” Here are a few of our favorite sexy, screwball, sci-fi and even superhero stories that prove love is real.

When Harry Met Sally (1989)

Columbia Pictures

Can men and women ever truly just be friends? That’s the question this film by rom-com queen Nora Ephron attempts to answer. Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal ‘s chemistry just bleeds through the screen, and who can forget that iconic moment at Katz’s Deli? With scenes including Central Park in the fall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and plenty of bustling streetscapes, it’s also a love letter to New York City.

Love, Simon (2018)

Imdb

Part coming-of-age, part identity journey with lots of sweet teen romance moments, this is the perfect choice for sleepover fare. It deals with a gay teen trying to figure out how to come out and find love, in a story so many will find deeply relatable.

His Girl Friday (1940)

Columbia Pictures

This movie is the very definition of a screwball romantic comedy, with snappy dialogue that keeps viewers on their toes. It’s also a comedy of remarriage, as it’s about a newspaper reporter (Cary Grant) who wants to stop his ex-wife and one-time protégé (Rosalind Russell) from getting married to a boring insurance broker.

Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind (2004)

Focus Features

For those who like their romantic comedies with a little science fiction, this team-up between director Michel Gondry and writer Charlie Kaufman is the one. Jim Carrey plays a man, spurned by a breakup, who agrees to a procedure to erase the memories of his ex, Clementine (Kate Winslet). But as his memories of her disappear, he realizes he still has feelings for her.

Moonstruck (1987)

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

In what might be Cher’s best acting performance, she stars as a young widow living with her Italian American family in Brooklyn Heights. She plans to get re-married, but things get complicated when she meets her fiancé’s brother (Nic Cage). He seems all wrong for her, but there’s undeniable chemistry.

While You Were Sleeping (1995)

Buena Vista Pictures

This story about “love at second sight” goes to show that sometimes The One arrives when we’ve let our guard down. Or anyway, that’s what Lucy ( Sandra Bullock ) comes to understand as she gets to know Jack ( Bill Pullman ) while pretending to be his comatose brother’s fiancée. Yes, you read that right.

The Apartment (1960)

United Artists

Billy Wilder’s classic rom-com is also an Academy Award winner. The film stars a young Jack Lemmon as a man who’s found a unique way to advance his career: He lends his apartment to his bosses for their extramarital affairs. He gets more than he bargained for, though, when he meets Fran (Shirley MacLaine), one of his boss’s mistresses.

Love and Basketball (2000)

New Line Cinema

We love a sweet story about childhood sweethearts. In this story, Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps play next-door-neighbors who fall for each other. But their ambitions get in the way of their romance, since they both strive to play professional basketball.

Always Be My Maybe (2019)

Netflix

In comedian Ali Wong’s directorial debut, she also plays Sasha Tran, a celebrity chef who returns home to San Francisco to open a restaurant. Of course, she runs into her childhood BFF, Marcus Kim (Randall Park) whose life hasn’t exactly gone as planned. Sparks fly, banter follows and so does plenty of drama.

Say Anything (1989)

20th Century Fox

This John Cusak classic probably sold about a million boomboxes after the scene in which Lloyd (Cusak) stood outside Diane’s (Ione Skye) window holding one overhead, Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” blasting from its speakers. The gesture represented the epitome of romance in the late ’80s, and we’d still melt for it today.

Straight Up (2020)

Strand Releasing

Todd is an ultra-articulate twentysomething with OCD who has lived most of his life as a gay man. When he meets Rory, a straight woman who, for her own reasons, avoids intimacy, he starts to question his sexuality. They decide to give a relationship a go, but can it survive without sex? The quick-witted patter between Rory and Todd have all the charm of an old-school rom-com, plus it pays tribute to the fluidity of sexual attraction.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010)

Universal Pictures

Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) meets his dream girl, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), but must first defeat her seven evil exes before they can live happily ever after. This cult classic feels like a video game in movie form, but even non-gamers will love this fast-paced favorite.