Best Of
Best Romance Movies of 2025: Nine That Actually Came Out That Year
By Jordan A. · · Updated · 6 min read
Everything below actually came out in 2025. That sounds like a low bar, and it is, but plenty of "best romance of the year" lists quietly pad themselves with Casablanca and Before Sunrise, which is a nice way of admitting the year was thin. It wasn't. 2025 gave us a matchmaker movie that argued about money for two hours, a fourth Bridget Jones that had no right to work, and a remake of a 1993 classic that found something new in it.
The test for this list: the romance has to be the engine, not the garnish, and the film has to have been released in 2025. Nine made it. They are sorted by mood rather than ranking, because the version of you that wants a weepy Colleen Hoover adaptation is not the version that wants a Celine Song film about the price of a partner.
If you want romance with an argument inside it
Materialists is the one worth starting with. Celine Song followed Past Lives with a story about a professional matchmaker caught between her broke ex and a very rich client, and she refuses to pretend that height, income and job title are not part of how people actually choose each other. Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal play it straight rather than cute.
2025, written and directed by Celine Song, released in the US on June 13, 2025 by A24, grossed $108 million on a $20 million budget.
Who should choose it: anyone who finds most rom-coms weightless. The difference from a standard love triangle is that Song lets the least romantic answer stay on the table until very late.
Splitsville is the cynic's pick and barely a romance at all, which is why it belongs here. Michael Angelo Covino directed and co-wrote it with Kyle Marvin, and it follows two couples whose friendship detonates when one marriage opens up. It's a comedy about how badly people negotiate the terms of love.
2025 American comedy, directed by Michael Angelo Covino, starring Dakota Johnson, Adria Arjona, Covino and Marvin.
Who should choose it: couples who like being slightly uncomfortable together. Skip it if you want soft.
If you want the classic shape done well
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is the fourth film in the series and the first one that has genuine grief in it. Renée Zellweger's Bridget is a widowed single mother now, dating again, pursued by a much younger man while Hugh Grant's Daniel Cleaver hangs around being useful for once. It is funnier than a fourth entry has any business being.
2025, directed by Michael Morris, screenplay by Helen Fielding, Dan Mazer and Abi Morgan, based on Fielding's 2013 novel. Zellweger, Grant and Colin Firth all return, with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Leo Woodall added.
Who should choose it: people who have watched the first film enough times to quote it. The difference is tonal: this one earns its jokes off real loss.
The Wedding Banquet takes Ang Lee's 1993 film and rebuilds it for a queer couple in Seattle who need a green card and a grandmother who needs a wedding. Andrew Ahn directs, and the cast is the reason to show up: Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone, Kelly Marie Tran, Han Gi-chan, Joan Chen and Youn Yuh-jung.
2025, directed by Andrew Ahn, co-written by Ahn and James Schamus, premiered at Sundance 2025 and opened in US theaters April 18, 2025.
Who should choose it: anyone who wants a romance that is really about family logistics. It's warmer than the original and slightly less cutting.
If you want a swing that doesn't quite land
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is the year's most interesting failure. Kogonada put Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell in a magical-realist road movie where doors open onto their own pasts. It flopped hard and critics split down the middle, and it's still more ambitious than most things in this genre get to be.
2025, directed by Kogonada, written by Seth Reiss, released in the US by Sony on September 19, 2025, grossed $20.2 million against a $45 million net budget.
Who should choose it: viewers who would rather watch a big idea wobble than a small one succeed. If you want a reliable evening, pick almost anything else on this list.
If you want it easy
Picture This is the low-effort winner. Simone Ashley plays a photographer told by a prophecy that she'll meet the love of her life within five dates, right as her sister's wedding turns her family into full-time matchmakers. It's a remake of the 2024 Australian film Five Blind Dates and it moves.
2025 British romantic comedy, starring Simone Ashley and Hero Fiennes Tiffin, released on Amazon Prime Video on March 6, 2025.
Who should choose it: Bridgerton fans who want Ashley in something contemporary. Lower stakes than everything above it here.
My Oxford Year is the streaming comfort watch of the bunch, an American student at Oxford falling for her tutor while a secret sits underneath it. Critics were rough on it. Audiences were not, and it is exactly what it says on the tin.
2025, directed by Iain Morris, starring Sofia Carson and Corey Mylchreest, released on Netflix August 1, 2025.
The Life List pairs well with it. Sofia Carson again, this time working through a to-do list her late mother left behind, with Kyle Allen and Connie Britton alongside. It's a romance wrapped around a grief story rather than the other way round.
2025, written and directed by Adam Brooks, adapted from Lori Nelson Spielman's novel, starring Sofia Carson, Kyle Allen and Connie Britton.
Who should choose these two: anyone who wants to cry a manageable amount and go to bed.
If you want the full weepie
Regretting You is the Colleen Hoover adaptation, so you know the deal: a mother and daughter, a car crash, a secret that reframes a marriage, and a first love running underneath. Josh Boone directed, which tells you it's built for the same audience that made The Fault in Our Stars a phenomenon.
2025, directed by Josh Boone, starring Allison Williams, Mckenna Grace, Dave Franco and Mason Thames. Released by Paramount in the US on October 24, 2025, grossed $90.5 million worldwide on a $25 million budget despite poor reviews.
Who should choose it: people who want to be wrecked on purpose. Everyone else should read the room first.
Where these stream
Streaming rights on 2025 titles move constantly, so rather than print a list that's wrong by November, check the title page on BingeNext for current US options. Picture This started on Prime Video and My Oxford Year on Netflix, which is where each is most likely to still be sitting. The theatrical releases rotate between rental and subscription tiers.
Start here
If you want to argue about love afterward, start with Materialists. If you want to laugh and then cry, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. If you want two people on a couch and no homework, Picture This. If your night calls for a full collapse, Regretting You.
Picking a film for two people is harder than picking one for yourself, because you're solving for two sets of taste at once. That's what BingeNext's couple mode is built for: each of you enters a few films you love, and it finds the overlap and tells you why each pick works for both of you and where it streams. Results take about a minute.
Topics covered: best-of, 2025, romance, movies, love, genre
About the author
Jordan A., Founder, BingeNext
Jordan A. is the founder of BingeNext and is responsible for every guide published on this site. He built the recommendation engine after one too many nights lost to the streaming menu. Dates, season counts and where-to-watch details in these guides are checked against official sources before publishing, and corrections are welcome at Jordan@Bingenext.com.