Hollywood and the Harlequin Plot
Why deal with romance? One reason might be its total annual sales value of $1.08 billion,1 with this genre representing 34 percent of the fiction market in the US alone.2 “More than 44 million print and 28 million electronic romance books were sold in 2015,”3 presenting a vast array of work in this genre, some of which may be worth adapting. Romance also prevails in the music industry, which grossed $42.93 billion globally in 2016, a higher figure than the global box office revenue of films in all genres.4 Remembering Godard’s words, “Money is the language of film,” we can cash in on romance, and we can revolutionize it.
Before 1960, the main plot of 85 percent of all Hollywood ...
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