Valentine’s Day isn’t just a time to celebrate our significant others (or lack thereof). According to the National Retail Federation, it’s a holiday that drives over $25 billion in annual consumer spending. For decades, the first two months of each year have featured romance-driven programming at cable channels like Hallmark and Lifetime. This makes sense, as Hallmark’s TV arm was designed to support its greeting card and gift business and Lifetime has historically marketed heavily to women.
In this newsletter, we answer the following questions:
- How do original romance movies on streamers connect to this legacy consumption pattern?
- Has the production of original romance cable movies tracked with the overall decline of original scripted programming in cable?
The case study of Shotgun Wedding, a high-octane action-romance film starring Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel, shows the seasonal demand for this genre. It was originally released as a Prime Video original in 2023. Viewership experienced dramatic spikes during the month of February. In 2024, Shotgun Wedding saw a nearly 400% increase in viewers between New Year’s Day and the end of February. The increase in 2025 was exponentially bigger, with an increase of 15,000% over that same time period. This radical increase may have been driven by other titles starring Jennifer Lopez, as This is Me…Now and Unstoppable are also available on Prime Video.
This boost in viewership also catapulted the title into the Luminate Top 50 Movies chart.
The romance film spike can be seen in the weeks between late January and mid-February. During the last week of January, no romance movie appeared in the top 10 of the Luminate Top 50 Movie Charts. Just one month later, original romance movies comprised half of the top 10 titles. Notably, the Netflix original La Dolce Villa ranked higher than the Oscar-nominated drama Conclave.
One might expect the linear output for romance movies to decline, given the availability and performance of these titles on streaming. However, that hasn’t been the case. The total count of romance-themed linear titles has remained remarkably resilient through a turbulent time for the industry. While there has been a slight decline since 2022, no comparable increase has been seen in streaming romance content. This isn’t too surprising, as networks like Hallmark Channel and Great American Family dedicate nearly their entire Q1 programming schedule to Valentine’s Day content.
The next holiday cycle is Easter, which is the second-biggest retail spending holiday. A future Streaming Watch will look at the rites of spring at the streamers to see who’s looking to tap into holiday-driven consumer spending patterns.
