The best rom-coms of all time

A good rom-com never fails to hit the spot. These are the top 50 romantic comedies of all time

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17. Pretty Woman (1990)

The best rom-coms of all time 1

Some of Pretty Woman’s story points haven’t aged particularly well and it would never make it past the idea stage in 2021, but it remains a seminal entry into the pantheon of classic rom-coms.

It launched Julia Roberts to the top of the Hollywood A-list and she still hasn’t come down over 30 years later, while it even reigned as the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever made for a spell until Terminator 2: Judgement Day came along.

‘Cinderella, except with a prostitute’ doesn’t sound like a light-hearted romp, but the cast have charisma to spare and the glossy Hollywood sheen brightens up a tale that could have turned out very differently in lesser or more cynical hands.

Interesting facts about BTS
  • The group name, “BTS” stands for the Korean expression Bangtan Sonyeondan which translates to “Bulletproof Boy Scouts”. Band member J-Hope said that they chose this name because it represents BTS’s desire “to block out stereotypes, criticisms, and expectations that aim on adolescents like bullets.” But that isn’t the only meaning behind the name. In 2017, BTS said, as part of their new brand identity, that their name would also stand for Beyond the Scene” which extended their name to mean “growing youth BTS who is going beyond the realities they are facing, and going forward.”
  • BTS was originally intended to be a hip-hop group, similar to YG Entertainment’s 1TYM. This was because Big Hit Entertainment CEO Bang Si-hyuk met with RM and was very impressed by his rapping talents. However, Bang Si-hyuk changed his mind and decided that today’s youth needed “a hero who can lend them a shoulder to lean on, even without speaking a single word.”
  • BTS has said that all of the following musicians have inspired their music; Post Malone, Eminem, Seo Taiji and Boys, Nas, Kanye West, Drake, Charlie Puth, Danger, and Queen.
  • The band’s first English-language single, “Dynamite”, was released on August 21st. Its video broke the YouTube record for the most viewed music video premiere, grabbing the attention of three million viewers, and it set a new record for the most viewed video on the first day of release. “Dynamite” is also the first music video on YouTube to surpass 100 million views in less than one day.
  • BTS has been often labeled as “easily the biggest and most successful name in K-pop in the world” that can “do things no other name in their genre can.” Time magazine has gone as far as calling them the “Princes of Pop.”