The 8 Best Romance Movies of the 2010s

We let the numbers pick. They picked a fish-man, a silent movie and a dystopian death match. The 2010s were a strange decade for love.

Number one is a love story where nobody stays together. Fight me.

1. 8
   The Shape of Water (2017)8.6

   A fish-man romance, played completely straight, and it works.

   Reported $19.3 to 19.5 million budget, $195 million worldwide, CinemaScore A+. Audiences fell for the guy with gills, no questions asked. The villain is a cartoon, though.
2. 7
   A Star Is Born (2018)8.7

   The first hour is perfect. The second hour drags.

   $439.9 million worldwide on a reported $36M budget. Lady Gaga carries it. The back half sags, which is why the Guru's Take stops at 8.2.
3. 6
   Midnight in Paris (2011)8.7

   Charming postcard, thinner than its 8.7 score suggests.

   93% on Rotten Tomatoes, but the Guru's Take is 7.3. It's a pretty stroll past famous dead writers, light as a croissant and about as filling.
4. 5
   The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)8.7

   Yes, a Hunger Games movie belongs on a romance list.

   Audiences beat critics here, 90th vs 82nd percentile, and 787,173 IMDb votes is the biggest crowd on this list. The love triangle is still the weakest part.
5. 4
   Little Women (2019)8.9

   Best-made movie on this list. Guru's Take agrees: 8.9.

   Metacritic 91. Gerwig's timeline shuffle makes an old story feel brand new. Only knock: the jumps between years can lose anyone who skipped the book.
6. 3
   The Artist (2011)9.2

   A silent movie in 2011 shouldn't work. It mostly does.

   9.2 movie.guru score on a reported $15M budget. The charm is real, but the gimmick runs thin by the end, hence a Guru's Take of 8.0.
7. 2
   Call Me by Your Name (2017)9.3

   The slowest summer ever filmed, and that's the whole point.

   Made for a reported $3.5M, grossed about $73 million worldwide, Metacritic 94. The pace will test anyone who needs something to happen before the hour mark.
8. 1
   Marriage Story (2019)9.4

   The best romance of the decade is a divorce movie.

   9.4 movie.guru score, Metacritic 94, and it barely saw theaters, grossing $333,686 worldwide. A love story told from the wreckage. Bring tissues, skip the date night.

$263.47 says someone in the comments calls #1 a breakup movie, not a romance, within ten minutes.

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Current mood: ready to fight about it