The Worst Romance Book Adaptations to Hit the Screen

Thanks to streaming, there have been noticeably plenty of book-to-movie adaptations in the past year or so, especially in the romance genre. Major studios have picked up and are releasing film adaptations of books such as The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood, Beach Read and People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry, and many more. These books are shaping up to be successful and well-received. Not all adaptations are lucky, however. Sometimes, the producers fail to translate the magic of the book to film, creating an underwhelming theatrical production. Sometimes, the source material lacks a solid foundation for an adaptation to begin with. In this list, I selected five of the worst romance book-to-film adaptations, according to Rotten Tomatoes. The list is not meant to be definitive, since I’ve skipped adaptations from decades ago in favor of ones released from the early 2010s and beyond. To accurately reflect a bad consensus, let’s mention both of Rotten Tomatoes’ rating systems: the critic rating, known as the Tomatometer, and the audience rating, or the Popcornmeter. It’s fascinating to see how these two distinct audiences perceive adaptations: often, where the Tomatometer sank ...