At a San Diego Comic-Con 2026 panel titled "Romance: On the Big Screen: Why It's About Damn Time," authors and producers argued that studios and streamers should invest properly in "elevated" romance projects, citing strong audience demand that the industry has been slow to serve. Moderated by author Veronica Roth, the panel brought together romance novelists Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings (writing as Christina Lauren), Ali Hazelwood and Maurene Goo alongside executives Max Siemers of Magic Hour Entertainment and Laura Lewis and Amanda Palley of Rebelle Media, who discussed how to elevate romance adaptations beyond generic formulas through casting, chemistry and attention to detail.

Panellists noted that romance accounts for 23% of all book sales, yet theatrical romance releases have fallen more than 75% over the past 20 years, prompting Rebelle Media's founders to say they want to revive the tradition of films by Richard Curtis, Nancy Meyers and Nora Ephron. Rebelle Media also announced it has acquired rights to adapt Sarah Adams' "When in Rome" book series, adding to a slate that already includes an MGM Television deal for the same author and Ali Hazelwood's "Love, Theoretically" at Amazon MGM Studios. Magic Hour Entertainment, a newly formed company co-founded by Siemers, is developing an adaptation of Christina Lauren's "Love & Other Words," while Hobbs and Billings also have their book "In a Holidaze" being adapted into a Netflix film later this year.