Heated Rivalry
Book-to-screen deals for romance IP that couldn't find buyers a few years ago are now routinely hitting six and seven figures. Romance was dismissed as low-budget volume content, something to pad out a slate between the prestige stuff. Now top literary agents say it's the most in-demand adaptation category, ahead of true crime and thrillers. Some recent examples of the boom:
- Emily Henry, the hottest author in the space, has five adaptations in the works. Her beach read 'People We Meet on Vacation' just premiered on Netflix.
- 'Heated Rivalry,'Â the breakout HBO hockey romance, triggered what agents call an "immediate" market shift for queer-led titles. Buyers are suddenly interested in backlist properties they previously ignored.
- Sports romance and paranormal romance are hot subgenres with multiple projects in development. Action romance (think Mr. & Mrs. Smith–style) is also gaining traction.
How we got here: Netflix and Amazon spent years building younger, predominantly female audiences with cheap romance content like 'The Kissing Booth' and 'To All the Boys.' They trained viewers to expect a constant stream of romantic stories and fed that appetite until it became "insatiable" (in one agent's word). Now those same platforms are competing against traditional studios for the IP they made valuable, driving prices they essentially inflated themselves.
The theatrical gap: Romance adaptations dominate streaming but have largely vanished from theaters since the rom-com era ended. Emerald Fennell's 'Wuthering Heights' (February 13) could be a useful test case for whether romance can work theatrically again. If it does, the genre suddenly has two profitable revenue streams.
