Does it end in a fairytale or does it end in a real-life situation? There are numerous ways couples get together, but in movies, they only showcase certain obstacles or the easiest, cheesy way. Netflix and Hallmark’s movies having some sappy love story and the cringy worthy pick-up line, it is obvious that each company has a way of showing romantic comedy. Viewers that are old enough to understand a relationship know that during a romantic comedy movie, some relationship comes together in a way that does not happen in real life and sometimes movies make viewers believe it could happen. In this project, I am going to examine two movie company platform Netflix and Hallmark’s to show realistic or unrealistic plot to get the character together, do these have similar movie plot, do these use multimedia to show the realistic and unrealistic relationship, and lastly which age group and gender have the most watch. 

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Romantic comedy is a genre that everyone loves to watch. No matter what the outcome of the movie ends at the viewer remains watching these incredible movies, especially if the main character has chemistry from the beginning. Also, if the relationship and spark of the main character don’t shine viewers tend to know the movie will have a sucky ending. According to author Beatriz Oria who wrote Love on the Margins: The American Indie Rom-Com of the 2010s “in 1978 for the past three decades, people have tried to kill the romantic comedy genre.” Also, “Romantic comedy is actually leading a “secret life” -- as Celestino Deleyto (2009) would put it” (145). Without directors trying to keep the genre alive or hiding this, the genre became a success. Furthermore, the genre romantic comedy has viewers laughing, crying, and following in love with the main character chemistry. Without this genre, Hallmark’s Channel would not be here today, and Netflix original would not come up with the best preteen to young adult movies as well. As romance changes over time author, Martin Mende who also contributed into writing The Marketing of Love: How Attachment Styles Affect Romantic Consumption Journeys stated that feelings and thought toward another individual is describing romantic love, but, nowadays romance interlock with consumption rather than interactions with a partner (255). Not only has romance evolved, but people have also come up with new ideas on how relationships evolve together. Sometimes a relationship that happens, in reality, ends up in films later or vise- versa. For instance, even though Netflix had been here for years they also come out with original movies that always contribute generations of a romantic comedy and ways of the main character falling in love. As for Hallmark’s Channel, they have been here for ten times longer than Netflix and will never change their aspects of how they create their movies to their viewers. One thing that Hallmark’s might change toward their films holds some new characters’ faces on screen and somewhat different aspects regarding individuals’ relationships falling in love. With that being said, Hallmark’s Channel will always stay the same until the new generation comes. 

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Romantic comedies come in numerous ways for developing character relationships. Watching any romantic comedy viewers notice that each movie plot is similar or different. Everyone knows that Hallmark’s Channel is a major romance with a little comedy. Hallmark’s is all about the Christmas spirits as for Netflix original their movies appear to be from all different seasons. In every Hallmark’s Channel, their movies remain predictable after watching about five movies altogether. “The films are formulaic whereby a boy and girl meet, their relationship builds, a fight separates them, and the man changes to win the female protagonist’s love” (67). In addition, Hallmark’s Channel is usually about a hard-working city girl who is forced to come home and leave work behind for Christmas. As she continues her journey back to her hometown that is small in the countryside, she causes some trouble but ends up meeting a new or old lover in town. Eventually, the couple falls for each other but a conflict like going back to the city cause trouble in paradise. Once she is back in the city, she notices that she still in love and couldn’t be away from him to end up packing everything in the city to move back to her home country town. Even though Hallmark’s movie remains predictable viewers still admire the movies, especially during the Christmas season. Hallmark’s Channel movie ideas of bringing the two main characters to fall in love is a fairytale that every girl dream of. Knowing at first sight that they will be together to the end, no matter the difficulty they went through to finally be together as girlfriend and boyfriend or sometimes a marriage at the end. Author Walter Metz stated that there are two queens when filming a Hallmark’s Channel Christmas movie. The first one is no other Candace Cameron Bure from Full House who starred in her first story Moonlight and Mistletoe. Ever since the successful and highest rating on Christmas Under Wraps Bure has appeared on Hallmark’s Channel longer than any other Queens of Christmas. The second queen of Hallmark’s Christmas movie is Alicia Witt who starred in her first Christmas movie in 2013 was Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas. Metz who is interested in Witt stated that Witt had emerged from the most unlikely of place, the world of David Lynch. Just like Bure, Witt had also started at a young age and worked her way up. By 2013 she starred in two Christmas films on Hallmark’s Channel. Both Candance Cameron Bure and Alicia Witt’s clique’s relationship falls in love by realizing the trueness of Christmas spirits. In addition, with numerous films, each character has their own twist and surrealism that makes the main character goes so well that outside of the movies the character can actually be together in real life (2-8). Without Candance Cameron Bure and Alicia Witt Hallmark’s being the main character for the past years, Hallmark’s Christmas movie will not have the romance Christmas feeling that viewers love. In addition, Hallmark’s Channel movie character happens to be based on their late twenty to thirty years of age. As for Netflix original, their main characters happen to fall for each other like any other high school drama that will happen in real life. 

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 Netflix’s originals movies tend to show different plot scenes of the main character finally dating. For instance, Netflix’s original has a story of a young girl who is not popular at her school, being bullied, and even unnoticeable in the beginning. Meanwhile, when the young girl finally starts to shine out of her shell the handsome, athletic, tall young man starts to notice the girl in the middle of the movie during the climax starts to hit. There remain different scenarios about how Netflix’s original signifies the main characters from gravitating toward each other. From the Netflix originals, I have seen the non-popular quiet girls always get the popular guy at the end and the changes between both regarding their personalities of the main character from the beginning slowly change at the end. With Netflix’s original climbing to the top of having the best original movies, Zamira Rahim states Netflix released a romantic comedy that became so popular it spawned two sequels. In addition, Rahim also mentions with Netflix spending they haven’t taken over the Christmas romantic comedy market and that it remains entirely to Hallmark’s domain ('We Own Christmas':).Watching Netflix’s original movies is different from watching Hallmark’s Channel movies. Viewers that possess several Hallmark movies know how specific the story plot goes. As stated above the way these main characters start to fall toward each other normally meets for the first time or lovers back then before the female character leaves her hometown to chase her dreams. Don’t be a fool when watching a romantic comedy, especially Hallmark’s Channel because according to Benedikt Till who contributed to writing Blurred World View: A study on the Relationship between Television Viewing and the Perception of the Justice System stated that Austrian viewers who are watching American crime films might perceive that Austrian have the similar justice system being portrayed in movies/shows (539). In reality, American films are sorted by fiction and non-fiction, and viewers would not know unless if the beginning of the film is based on a true story. Younger viewers that watch romantic comedy will probably understand the romance more than the comedy until they get older. By watching at a young age mainly female viewers will want and believe that there is a fairytale happy ending, but in reality, some will be happy, and some will be disappointed at first until they do have a happy ending with their partner. 

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Between Netflix and Hallmark’s Channel, each company produces its own take on romantic comedy movies that come in all ages. According to Samantha Rose Hill who wrote Why the Hallmark Channel Is Completely Dominating in 2017 stated that the intended target for Hallmark’s was women in their middle American age 25-54. Not only are women watching but nearly 40% among adults 18-49 and more than 25% among adults 25- 54 watch the channel Hallmarks. Hallmark’s Channel has its own demographics on viewers’ age that Netflix varies in their age group. For instance, Netflix is a movie/ show operation that varies in different types of genre to watch from. As for the romantic comedy genre, Netflix movie is between the ages of pre-teen to adults. Some romantic comedy movie characters are played by teenagers to show that there is romance in younger viewers. For instance, author Emily Carterranked five different movies from cringe to worthy of watching. One movie she put down was The Kissing Booth where the age group is pre-teen to young adults. From watching numerous of Netflix original movies, there is probably more pre-teen to young adult’s romantic comedy movies than movies that are over the age limit of PG-13 to rated R. (Netflix’s Latest Original Rom-Coms) According to author Amy Watson, with Netflix coming out with original movies, no other cite can have the original movie on their platform. With Netflix trying to showcase romantic comedy with a Christmas backstory, this can lead to Hallmark’s viewer decrease and Netflix have the advantage to get any age viewer. (U.S. Netflix Subscription by Generation 2017). In addition, Sidneveve Matrix stated that platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Nickelodeon are distributing films like ICarly, and Drake and Josh will get more viewers to their server. This will lend to having more viewers watch on that platform to the point viewers will binge-watch anything that is amusing to watch. In addition, toddlers who watch at a young age will also binge-watch any films at that young age and as they grow older (119+). No matter the age romance comedy is for everyone, especially Hallmark’s Channel is a family Christmas platform and Netflix are a platform with all different types of genre. Furthermore, with Netflix coming out of their original’s films they can wipe out or even buy any platform if they wanted to.

 

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In conclusion, my research on Netflix and Hallmark’s to show realistic or unrealistic plot to get the character together, do these have similar movie plot, do these use multimedia to show the realistic and unrealistic relationship, and lastly which age group and gender have the most watch. I was surprised that romantic comedy movies based on Hallmark’s Channel and Netflix both have different aspects of ideas regarding romantic comedy. Fairytale ending or a real-life situation remains all up on the viewer’s imaginations and how the viewers want to see romance in their life. The sappy love story and the cringy worthy pick-up line is what the viewers come to see and the sparks of the main character falling in love for the first time or falling back in love after years apart and finally realizing they were meant to be together at the end of the story. 

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