General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Anyone but You

Anyone but You is a 2023 American romantic comedy directed by Will Gluck, starring Sydney Sweeney as Bea and Glen Powell as Ben, two exes who pretend to be a couple at a destination wedding in Sydney, Australia after a first date that ends badly.¹ It is a loose modernization of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, written by Ilana Wolpert and Gluck for Columbia Pictures.² Released in theaters on December 22, 2023 to a weak $6 million opening weekend and mixed reviews, it became a word-of-mouth sleeper hit that finished with a worldwide gross of $220.3 million on a $25 million budget.³^•⁴^•⁵

Key fact	Detail
Release	December 22, 2023 (theatrical, wide); R rating; 103 minutes⁶
Director and writers	Will Gluck; story by Ilana Wolpert, screenplay by Wolpert and Gluck²
Source	Loose adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing⁷
Budget and gross	$25 million budget; $220.3 million worldwide⁴^•⁵
Reception	53% on the Tomatometer from 118 critics; 87% audience score on the Popcornmeter⁶
Filming location	Sydney, Australia, including the Opera House, Harbour Bridge, Bondi Beach, and Palm Beach⁸
Signature song	Natasha Bedingfield's 2004 single "Unwritten," Ben's "serenity song" and the anchor of the end-credits sequence⁹

Spoilers

Plot and cast

After an amazing first date, something goes wrong and Bea (Sweeney), an unsure law student, and Ben (Powell), a finance professional, turn their attraction into mutual dislike.¹^•¹⁰ Months later they are reunited at a destination wedding in Australia, where Ben's childhood friend is marrying Bea's sister. To survive the wedding, and to deflect Bea's ex Jonathan and her interfering family, they pretend to be a couple.¹^•⁷

The supporting cast includes Alexandra Shipp, GaTa, Hadley Robinson, Michelle Hurd, Dermot Mulroney, Darren Barnet, and Rachel Griffiths; Mulroney and Griffiths play Bea's parents, Leo and Innie.²^•¹¹ Sweeney also served as an executive producer alongside Jonathan Davino and others, with Gluck, Joe Roth, and Jeff Kirschenbaum producing.²

The Shakespeare connection

Wolpert wrote the script as a spec during the pandemic after deciding that Much Ado About Nothing would make a strong modern rom-com; Gluck later joined and moved the setting to Australia.¹² The borrowing runs deeper than the enemies-to-lovers plot, which echoes the "merry war" between Beatrice and Benedick: the leads' names derive from the play's characters, a bedside book titled Men Were Deceivers Ever quotes a line from the play, and the final montage plays out under a huge sign reading "Much Ado About Nothing."⁷ The film replaces the play's "Sigh No More" theme with Natasha Bedingfield's 2004 self-empowerment anthem "Unwritten," which Ben listens to on repeat when he feels afraid.¹³

Production in Sydney

Gluck had wanted to showcase Sydney on film since making the Peter Rabbit movies there, and set the film in the city deliberately; even the early US-set scenes were shot in Sydney.¹⁴ Location manager Jeremy Peek, whose credits include Mad Max: Fury Road, scouted the city's landmarks, including the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Bondi Beach, and Palm Beach; filming at the Opera House required extended negotiations because Gluck wanted a large-scale romantic gesture there.⁸ The production was supported by Screen NSW through the Made in NSW Fund, and Gluck has said the Bondi Beach sequence was filmed without visual effects.⁸^•¹⁵

Box office and the marketing campaign

Sony released the film in the Christmas corridor with low expectations; executives reportedly woke up on Christmas Day convinced it was a dud after the $6 million opening weekend.³ Instead, the film outgrossed its debut in each subsequent US weekend, helped by positive word of mouth and a lack of winter releases aimed at female audiences, and it ultimately earned about $88 million in the United States and $220.3 million worldwide.³^•⁶^•⁴ That total reportedly makes it the highest-grossing adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.¹⁶

Rumors as marketing. During production and release, tabloid speculation about a real-life romance between Sweeney and Powell became a major publicity story, and Netflix's promotional coverage described the pair as having "embarked on a steamy PR campaign."¹¹ The two stars skewered the rumors during Sweeney's Saturday Night Live appearance and posted a TikTok video of them whispering to each other that drew a reported 18 million views, more than the 10 million views of the film's official trailer.⁷ The end-credits sequence, in which the cast dances and sings along to "Unwritten," sparked a viral TikTok trend of audiences filming their own singalongs in theaters.⁸

Reception

Critics were mixed. The Rotten Tomatoes critics' consensus calls it "a passably fizzy diversion despite a less than scintillating story," backed by a 53% score from 118 reviews, while audiences gave it 87%.⁶ The Guardian's review called it "slick but soulless," finding the leads unconvincing as enemies.¹⁰ RogerEbert.com, by contrast, scored it 88 and praised the charm, wit, and star chemistry it found missing from recent entries in the genre.¹⁷ Sweeney has publicly acknowledged the negative reviews while pointing to the film's connection with audiences.¹⁸

The film's theatrical run became a talking point for the industry: director Gluck argued that the communal theater experience was a big part of its success, and commentators cited it as evidence that Hollywood had been too quick to abandon the romantic comedy as a big-screen proposition.⁷^•¹⁹

Home media and streaming

The film reached digital platforms on February 20, 2024 and DVD and Blu-ray on March 12, 2024.²⁰ It later streamed on Netflix before moving to other services; it arrived on HBO Max on October 20, 2026, and as of late 2026 streams on Hulu, HBO Max, fuboTV, YouTube TV, and FXNow, with rental from $3.99 and purchase from $14.99.²¹^•²²

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 2023

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

Notice something wrong?