Paul, late in responding, but that’s a great take. IIRC, the production budget for MBFGW was $5M. That’s all in for EVERYTHING. Many name actors have salaries equal to or well above that figure — so $5M for ONE actor as compared to the entire budget. And frankly, many rom-coms COULD be produced for $5–10M.

But your second point is the real key: The success of a movie, rom-com or otherwise, is hugely dependent upon the quality of the script. As Hitchcock said: “To make a great film, you need three things — the script, the script and the script.”

Thanks, Paul, for that observation.