Sydney Sweeney's Controversial $220M R-Rated Rom-Com Is 1 of the Most-Watched Movies on Streaming

Sydney Sweeney‘s career has exploded in the last few years, moving from prestige television to box office sensations, and all of which have been chosen by her own keen producer’s eye. But there’s one movie that catapulted her from supporting player on HBO to legitimate leading lady and not only that, it made a star of her co-lead too. In 2023, Sweeney brought back the sort of outrageous, unapologetically romantic comedy that Hollywood had seemingly forgotten how to make, and audiences absolutely loved it. In fact, they still are loving it.

Anyone But You has officially climbed to No. 6 on HBO Max’s most-watched movies chart in the United States, according to FlixPatrol. Directed by Will Gluck (Easy A), the movie is loosely inspired by William Shakespeare‘s Much Ado About Nothing but it turns it into a millennial idea of your worst one-night-stand nightmare. Anyone But You became one of the biggest romantic comedy success stories in years, earning approximately $220 million worldwide against a reported $25 million production budget.

The movie follows two ridiculously good looking people, as you’d expect. Bea and Ben look like the perfect couple, but after an amazing first date something happens that turns their fiery hot attraction ice cold – until they find themselves unexpectedly thrust together at a destination wedding in Australia. So they do what any two mature adults would do: pretend to be a couple.

• The first film not in the English language to win Best Picture, in the Academy’s
  92-year history to that point.
• It took four Oscars in one night: Picture, Director, Original Screenplay and International
  Feature.
• It won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2019 by a unanimous jury vote, the first Korean film
  to do so.
• The Park family’s modernist house was not a location. It was built from scratch on an
  outdoor lot.

• Seven Oscars, including three acting wins for Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee
  Curtis.
• Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win Best Actress.
• The visual effects were handled by a team of fewer than ten people, most of them
  self-taught.
• Ke Huy Quan had all but left acting for two decades before this role brought him back.

• Seven Oscars, including Nolan’s first wins for directing and for Best Picture.
• Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. both took their first Academy Awards for it.
• Kodak engineered a black-and-white 65mm stock that did not previously exist so Nolan could
  shoot those sequences on IMAX.
• A three-hour, R-rated drama about theoretical physics that passed 950 million dollars
  worldwide.

• Four Oscars, among them Best Picture and Best Director for Iñárritu.
• Emmanuel Lubezki’s win here was the middle of three consecutive cinematography Oscars,
  after Gravity and before The Revenant.
• Antonio Sánchez’s improvised drum score was ruled ineligible for the score category,
  which caused a minor uproar.
• The long-take illusion was built from a handful of extended shots joined by hidden cuts.

• Four Oscars: Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Supporting Actor for Javier Bardem.
• Adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel, with much of his dialogue carried over
  intact.
• Carter Burwell’s score runs about sixteen minutes and is nearly inaudible by design.
• Roger Deakins was nominated twice that year, for this and The Assassination of Jesse James,
  and won for neither.

Who Stars in ‘Anyone But You’?

The cast stars Sydney Sweeney (Euphoria) as Bea, Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick) as Ben, Alexandra Shipp (X-Men: Apocalypse) as Claudia, GaTa (Dave) as Pete, Hadley Robinson (Little Women) as Halle, Dermot Mulroney (My Best Friend’s Wedding) as Leo, Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under) as Innie, and Bryan Brown (Cocktail) as Roger. The film is directed by Easy A‘s Will Gluck.

The movie’s renewed popularity comes as Sweeney continues enjoying enormous success on HBO Max, with her psychological thriller The Housemaid currently occupying second place on the platform’s U.S. movie chart after 21 days in the rankings.

Based on Freida McFadden‘s bestselling novel, The Housemaid earned approximately $400 million worldwide and has already spawned a sequel, The Housemaid’s Secret, which is currently in production and scheduled to arrive in theaters on December 17, 2027.

Both Anyone But You and The Housemaid are streaming now on HBO Max in the United States.

Anyone But You