Where Have All the Black Rom Coms Gone? Black History Month: A Celebration of Black Cinema and TV Shows

We’re on the brink of a romantic comedy renaissance. In a future piece I will expand on this concept but for now since we’re still in February and Glambergirlblog is in the middle of the Black History Month: A Celebration of Black Cinema and TV Shows features today we’re going to focus specifically on the Black rom coms.

The 1992 film “Boomerang” starring Eddie Murphy is stated to be the first Black rom com. In the movie Murphy plays the successful executive and womanizer Marcus who meets his match in Jacqueline played by Robin Givens who allows him to tap into his vulnerable side. Halle Berry, David Alan Grier, Martin Lawrence, Grace Jones, Eartha Kitt, Tisha Campbell, and Lela Rochon all play key roles in Marcus’ journey to love.

A bit later in the early 2000s there was an influx of Black led rom coms. Vivica A. Fox and Morris Chestnut starred in “Two Can Play That Game” in 2001 as lovers who played games in order to put each other “in line.” In 2002 Sanaa Lathan and Taye Diggs starred in “Brown Sugar” as besties turned to lovers. And 2003 brought “Deliver Us from Eva” where the lovers of sisters played by Essence Atkins, Robinne Lee, and Meagan Good attempted to set up the uptight Eva, played by Gabrielle Union, to steer away focus from her sister’s lives. There were a few more Black led rom coms over the years like Eddie Murphy’s “Norbit” in 2007 and “Jumping the Broom” in 2011, but then they just stopped.

If you’re reading this and thinking, why didn’t I mention “Love & Basketball,” “Love Jones,” “The Wood,” “The Best Man,” or films like that it’s because I consider those rom-drams aka romantic drama films. Although they feature Black actors at the forefront of the cast there isn’t enough silliness in them to make them rom coms to my standard. I want lighthearted hijinks, random musical moments, and trauma free elements in my plot for me to deem a film a rom com, so where have all the Black rom coms gone?

Black people have appeared in recent rom coms like Jamie Foxx in the 2010 movie “Valentine’s Day,” Nicki Minaj in the 2014 film “The Other Woman,” Nia Long in the 2023 movie “You People,” but these are sprinkles in the flood of available rom coms and I would love a legit Black rom com free of trauma and forced dialogue. I don’t think there’s a lack of want or a lack of talented writers making these stories, but more of studios not thinking these concepts are bankable. What is it going to take to bring back Black rom coms?

Can you share some of your favorite Black led rom coms? Let me know in the comments.

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