Pretty Woman (1990)

There are times movies become cultural moments that take on a life well beyond the screen. 1990’s Pretty Woman was a cultural moment, and one that turned Julia Roberts into a superstar. She had been in Mystic Pizza, and Steel Magnolias. But it was this movie that changed the course of her life, and the 90s. Most people know the story, she’s a prostitute Richard Gere’s character falls in love with. That’s not usually the subject matter of the rom-com of the era. From that moment on, Hollywood changed course on what could be a rom-com, and it tried its best to cast Ms. Roberts in all of them. Pretty Woman did something that could not be done these days, it stayed in the top ten of the box office for 16 weeks. In 2026, if a movie can just stay in a theater for ten weeks, it’s considered a monster. It’s also a Disney movie, since it was released under the Touchstone Pictures banner, meaning you can make the argument Vivian is a Disney Princess. Pretty Woman doesn’t feel like a movie that could be made today in this form. Younger audiences are much more accepting of sex workers than audiences of 1990, but the fairytale aspect might be the part people would reject in modern times. It’s still worth seeing just for the sunburst of charm Ms. Roberts projects, but it’s also very much a movie of 1990.