‘We Had Offers From Every Streamer’

Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney’s rom-com Anyone But You had many offers to go direct to streaming, but Powell believed that the film’s “cultural impact” would be lost. It’s a sub-genre that was once potent at the box office but has subsided in recent years with most of them heading to streaming services. That was almost the case with their R-rated romp but both stars knew it wouldn’t have the same impact on those platforms.

In a profile on the actor for The Hollywood Reporter, Powell revealed that Sweeney enlisted him to co-star in the film because of his natural presence on camera and because she heard “how gracious and thoughtful he was” off-camera. When Easy A helmer Will Gluck boarded the project as director, their next goal was to get the film a theatrical release, even though just about every streamer came calling to snatch it up.

“We had offers from every streamer, and it was guaranteed [paydays] and a much bigger budget, but Syd and I really have a very similar worldview about Hollywood. We said, ‘If we make this on a streamer, it won’t have any cultural impact.’ And everyone was saying rom-coms were dead theatrically so we knew we could get hosed, but we thought, ‘Let’s take the gamble,’ because what if we could bring them back?”

Anyone But You Turned Into a Huge Box Office Hit

As it turns out, Powell and Sweeney’s instincts were right about Anyone But You. Released just ahead of Christmas 2023, the film seemed like it was going to be a rom-com misfire when it opened to just $6 million, but the movie soon became a very leggy word of mouth hit that played well into the new year. By the end of its run, the film grossed $88.3 million domestically and $219.5 million worldwide, making it one of the highest-grossing romantic comedies in years.

The actors knew it would be a gamble to bank on a romantic comedy in an uncertain marketplace, so they had to make the movie an event that would make moviegoers pay money to see it. The idea was to play to the genre’s strengths. This meant playing up to the chemistry between the two leads, which media outlets believed was also playing out off-screen as well, even though they both were in relationships. Powell has since broken up with his girlfriend at the time and Sweeney remains engaged to her fiancé, but the playful flirting was all done to generate press for the movie. According to Powell:

“I kept coming back to something that [Tom] Cruise had said, which was, ‘The world’s going to become really loud, and it’s your decision how much you turn up or down the volume because the world did get really loud, but I didn’t know where those dials were. I was like, ‘I know we talked about this, but I don’t know how to work this console.”

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Loosely based on William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, Anyone But You follows Ben (Powell) and Bea (Sweeney) who, after an amazing first date, has their fiery attraction turned ice-cold. This all changes when they find themselves unexpectedly reunited at a wedding in Australia, where they pretend to be a couple to make Ben’s ex jealous and to get Bea’s parents to stop trying to make her reconcile with her ex, with both ex-flames both in attendance. The film also stars Alexandra Shipp, GaTA, Hadley Robinson, Michelle Hurd, Dermot Mulroney, Darren Barnet, Bryan Brown, and Rachel Griffiths.