On March 25, director Nina Lee was about to give a speech to a room full of high school students offering advice on how to navigate the Hollywood movie business.
But the Atlanta native was in a tough spot. She was frustrated because her recent romantic comedy project, That’s Her, starring Coco Jones and Country Wayne, was in post-production limbo — neither picked up nor rejected outright by the various studios she approached. Before starting her speech, she reposted her tweet, warning the audience that the studio was watching to see how her new romantic comedy, “You Me and Tuscany,” currently in theaters, did at the box office.
“I met with a studio about a romantic comedy that has already been shot, but they won’t buy it until they see how ‘You Me and Tuscany’ turns out. I met with an executive about a romance script that I have, but they won’t buy it until they see how ‘You Me and Tuscany’ turns out. Let’s go see this movie!” Lee wrote in a post about X, which has now been viewed more than 500,000 times.
A few hours later, after Lee finished speaking, she checked her phone and saw a slew of texts and notifications from friends and new followers. Her tweet was picked up by popular X accounts such as PopCrave and DiscussingFilm, where people shared their disbelief at the situation.
“This shines a light on issues that affect all minorities, not just black women directors and black directors,” Lee told Variety.
Director Lee’s movie “That’s Her” depicts the story of a playboy who rises through the ranks and falls in love with a temporary worker. Production on the film wrapped last September, and director Lee held talks with studios at fall sales previews, but received no offers.
“A lot of executives reached out to my manager and they said, ‘Oh, they want to meet you, because you did a great job and they want to give you a word of encouragement,'” Lee recalls. She received praise for completing a large-scale work on a modest budget, but other than that, there was no solid criticism. At various meetings she went to, five of them said pretty much the same thing to her. “We’re not in a place where we can buy romantic comedies, but there are some Black romantic comedies coming out in 2026. We want to monitor and see how they turn out before we move on.”
Although executives wouldn’t say specifically which projects they were eyeing, it was easy to assume that Lee was referring to Universal’s “You Me and Tuscany.” The film is one of the few black-led romantic comedies released theatrically by a major studio in recent years.
Produced by Will Packer, “You Me and Tuscany” follows a free-spirited young cook (Grammy-nominated singer-turned-actress Halle Bailey) who impulsively squats in an abandoned house in Tuscany, meets and falls in love with the homeowner’s cousin (“Bridgerton” alumnus Regé-Jean Page), and becomes embroiled in a world of adventure. This is a sweet, gentle, sunny story with all the well-worn romantic comedy tropes of mix-ups and misunderstandings. However, there is also a weight of pressure on this film to do well at the box office.
It’s a pressure that he’s used to weathering — his resume includes blockbusters like “Girls Trip” and 10 movies that debuted at No. 1 domestically, including the “Think Like a Man” and “Ride Along” films. He knows there are “many eyes” on his films, which has been a proposition for black filmmakers for decades.
“Everyone from Oscar Micheaux to Spike Lee to Hudlin and the Hughes brothers want a shout out, because they’ve been doing it this way since before Will Packer — and that’s just the way it is,” Packer quips.
On how ‘You Me and Tuscany’ foretells the future of such films, he adds: “If money meant anything, we would see more, and Hollywood would change and adjust. So I’m trying to do my part to help Hollywood be successful in a language that they understand, but it’s not really the language of social justice, it’s actually the language of economics.”
Dr. Ana Cristina Ramon, co-author of the UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report, says Hollywood is ignoring its own data. “It doesn’t really matter if black movie fans support movies with black leads, because we can see that they support them,” she says.
In their 2025 report, Ramon and her team detailed that among the top 20 theatrical films from the previous year, “BIPOC men clearly had the largest audience share in 10 of these films, while BIPOC women clearly had the largest audience share in six other films. White women and white men each had the largest audience share in just one of these top 20 films.”
Ramon added that if audiences knew there was a movie with a black lead, they would go see it, but that is the first hurdle for a movie with a black lead.
According to Dr. Stacey L. Smith, founder of the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, a film’s box office performance is determined by several factors. “It has to have a great story. Second, it has to be supported by production and marketing costs. And last, it has to be released in a lot of theaters. The decisions about production costs, marketing costs, distribution, density, etc. are all in the hands of executives, and it’s clear that these executives are completely out of touch with Mr. Z, and over 40% of the U.S. population identifies as non-white.” ”
Without the promotional support of a studio, it seems nearly impossible for a movie to reach its full potential. And if studios don’t think audiences will return their investment, they’re unlikely to move forward with projects they don’t believe in.
Packer believes “You Me and Tuscany” would not have been made without Universal’s support. Not because it wasn’t a strong story, but studios believe that theatrically releasing romantic comedies is a risky proposition since the growth of streaming.
“It’s really about what the box office does,” he says. (You Me and Tuscany is expected to gross more than $10 million, a solid start for a film with an $18 million budget.)
“It’s important to Nina Lee around the world, and it’s important to audiences who want to see movies like this made,” Packer explains. “It’s important for the next white romantic comedy that someone is thinking about green lighting as a theatrical proposition.” But there’s power in that, he added, “Hollywood watches, and they react. Hollywood reacts to audiences more than they realize. They have the power to decide what gets made in Hollywood. You vote with your money.”
In an interview with Complex, Bailey shared her perspective on Lee’s situation, saying, “I feel like it’s almost unfair to us[tohavetobetold’Ohwelllet’sseehowthisgoesandlet’sgiveitthegreenlight'”AsacommunityweareknownforbreakingdownbarriersandnotlettinganythingstopusIthinkwewillpersistnomatterwhatevenifthegoalpostsaremovedeverytime”
As black actors in Hollywood, both Bailey and Page have faced immense pressure and racism during their careers. His casting as Ariel in Disney’s live-action film The Little Mermaid and Duke Simon Bassett in the Netflix series Bridgerton, respectively, sparked similar hate campaigns, with the hashtags #NotMyAriel and #NotMyDuke trending on social media. Despite the backlash, both projects were huge successes, paving the way for him to be seen as a promising star in a major studio film.
Halle Bailey and Regé-Jean Page on the set of Kat Coiro’s “You Me and Tuscany.”
Photo credit: Giulia Parmigiani/
Smith points out that this is no easy feat, especially for Bailey. “Women of color typically have minimal access and opportunity, but our recent economic data shows that they are performing at the box office on par with white men,” Smith explained, adding that although women of color make up about 20% of the U.S. population, by 2025 only 15% of leading roles in movies will be played by women of color.
Romantic comedies have been positioned as risky theatrical gambles in recent years, with most going straight to streaming. In particular, the greenlighting of POC-led romantic comedies speaks to the interests of women, with Smith saying that although the genres are slightly different, women are responsible for “50% of ticket sales.”
“It’s very interesting that Hollywood has backed away from the idea of romantic comedies, because the problem is that they underestimate the power of women at the box office,” Ramon says. “It’s a combination of the fact that people of color are really driving the success of the theater industry and the fact that movies are doing well because of women. It’s underestimating the fact that you can make a ton of money with[POC-led]romantic comedies.”
The topic of missed opportunities also weighs heavily on Lee’s mind. The outpouring of support she received after posting included one from an Asian filmmaker who said her original script had received similar feedback from studios and was looking forward to seeing “Crazy Rich Asians” come out in 2018. When the film became a huge hit, he was reportedly told that it was “unusual” and the studio was unsure whether its success would “continue to translate”.
“How do you win when the goals are moving?” Lee says. “You think you can see the goal, you think you know how to shoot to score, but as soon as you think you’ve scored a goal, they move it. How do we as filmmakers survive when that happens over and over again?”
The success of a film made by and for a particular demographic does not necessarily pave the way for future opportunities. Consider, for example, the billion-dollar success of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” in 2023 or the Oscar-winning achievement of “Sinners” last year. Can Hollywood learn the right lessons from these blockbusters? That remains to be seen. But we hope the industry recognizes the economic incentives of bringing in diverse perspectives.
As for Lee, her film “That’s Her” was selected by the American Black Film Festival and will have its world premiere next month. ABFF is a major showcase for the film industry, with a lineup that includes such hot films as “Girl Dad,” starring Marsai Martin and Courtney B. Vance and produced by Oscar winner Jamie Foxx, and Malcolm D. Lee’s peacock thriller “Strung,” led by Chloe Bailey. Lee hopes “That’s Her” will catch the attention of distributors after its buzz in Miami Beach.
“We have stories to tell, too, and our stories matter,” Lee says. “Well, I win as a director, but the audience wins because they get to see themselves.”
