You’ve been hearing it more and more, folks: 2023 has marked the return of the rom-com. There have been multiple flicks dropped this year that harken back to the iconique romantic comedy gold that we once frothed, but the latest one — Red, White & Royal Blue — has one major difference.
In this movie, queer characters aren’t the sassy, sarcastic, aggressively stereotyped side characters who merely act as a sounding board for the straight leads. Nope, in Red, White & Royal Blue, the gay characters — as well as the overall journey and experience of being queer — is front and centre and we love to see it.
And when I say we, I don’t just mean people who identify as queer and therefore have a vested interest in the themes of the film.
I mean scores and scores of viewers who have reportedly stampeded onto Prime Video to check out the delightfully gay flick in all its glory.
Red, White & Royal Blue has gone absolutely gangbusters, becoming the #1 movie globally on Prime Video in its premiere weekend. It’s also become one of Prime Video’s top three most-watched romantic comedies ever, and is responsible for causing a “huge surge” in new Prime membership signups.
The reason why this is so damn sweet is because it debunks the homophobic rhetoric that is always spewed when a film or TV series that’s deemed as “woke” because it features representation has ended up a commercial failure.
Each time this has happened, loser conservatives on the internet have weaponised it as evidence that queer stories aren’t of interest to the general public.
The phrase “go woke, go broke” is often littered across social media like the trash that it is.
But the success of Red, White & Royal Blue is proof that queer stories not only matter, but can also be shaped into excellent storytelling that’ll have viewers, queer or not, absolutely frothing.
It’s everything the LGBTQIA+ community has been begging for: representation, which in this case has converted into success.
Take for example Billy Eichner‘s Bros (2022) which, although it was a critical success, it sadly bombed in the box office and right wing nuts delighted in this.
Welp, the freaks who interpreted its failure as a smoking gun in the fight against queer representation were dead wrong and frankly, I’m dancing on the grave of that theory.
GLAAD’s Vice President of Communications and Talent, Anthony Allen Ramos, has since commended the film in a statement:
“The tremendous initial success of Prime Video’s Red, White & Royal Blue sends a clear message that entertainment with LGBTQ-lead stories can be hits with audiences and by industry standards.
“The fact that the film is already the streamer’s third most watched romantic comedy ever and that memberships to the platform have spiked related to its premiere also prove that the fringe anti-LGBTQ activists who are attacking inclusive entertainment are both wrong from a moral sense, but also from a business sense.
“The impressive statistics for Matthew Lopez’s fun and smart film based on the beloved book by Casey McQuiston are clear evidence that audiences of all kinds want more stories and films like Red, White & Royal Blue.”
So go ahead and join the scores of other people in checking out Red, White & Royal Blue ASAP.
It’s damn good entertainment, whether you’re queer or not.
