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favorite romantic movie by state

The Romantic Movie Each US State Loves Most [2024 Edition]

For many people, Valentine’s Day is not worth the stress and cost of going out — regardless of how in love they may feel. It’s better to stay home with that special someone and watch your favorite romantic movie. But what movie should you watch while you snuggle up?

We partnered with Mindnet Analytics to take a look at the favorite romantic movie of each state and the District of Columbia (DC). Using data from Google Trends and Rotten Tomatoes, we not only found each favorite but also how their interest in romances compared to other states.

Check out the results for 2021 below!

Some Interesting Finds

  1. “Gone with the Wind” claims the top spot, ranking as the top romantic movie in five states: Alabama, Kentucky, Ohia, Tennessee, and Virginia.
  2. “Beauty and the Beast,” “Her,” “The Little Mermaid,” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” were some of the most popular across the country.
  3. Many states picked movies that were locally based. Illinois was most obsessed with “The Big Sick,” based in Chicago. New York still thinks that “Brooklyn” is the best romantic film. Washington state naturally is most obsessed with “Sleepless in Seattle.”
  4. Georgia shifted interests this year toward “Romeo and Juliet”, but “Gone With the Wind” (based in Georgia) was a top favorite in neighboring states of Tennessee and Alabama.
  5. Washington DC showed the highest level of interest in romantic movies, followed by Vermont, Rhode Island, Maine, Utah, and Alaska.
  6. Georgia showed the least interest in romantic movies, followed by Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi, the Carolinas, Alabama, and Texas.

Interest Levels by State

states' interest in romantic movies
StateInterest Rank
Washinton DC1
Vermont2
Rhode Island3
Maine4
Utah5
Alaska6
Massachusetts7
Connecticut8
New Hampshire9.5
Wyoming9.5
California12
Delaware12
Oregon12
Idaho14
Montana15.5
Washington15.5
New York17
New Mexico18
Nebraska19
Hawaii20
Arizona24.5
Colorado24.5
Illinois24.5
Iowa24.5
Kansas24.5
Minnesota24.5
Missouri24.5
New Jersey24.5
South Dakota30
Virginia30
Wisconsin30
Nevada33
Pennsylvania33
West Virginia33
Ohio35
Arkansas37.5
Maryland37.5
North Dakota37.5
Oklahoma37.5
Indiana40
Kentucky41.5
Michigan41.5
Tennessee43.5
Texas43.5
Alabama45
North Carolina46
South Carolina47
Mississippi48
Florida49.5
Louisiana49.5
Georgia51

Each State’s Romantic Movie Pick

#LocationMovie Most Obsessed With
1AlabamaGone With The Wind
2AlaskaWuthering Heights
3ArizonaGiant
4ArkansasGhost
5CaliforniaEternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
6ColoradoOnce
7ConnecticutGhost
8DelawareHowards End
9District of ColumbiaWhen Harry Met Sally
10FloridaThe Little Mermaid
11GeorgiaRomeo And Juliet
12HawaiiThe Little Mermaid
13IdahoHowards End
14IllinoisThe Big Sick
15IndianaTitanic
16IowaBull Durham
17KansasJerry Maguire
18KentuckyGone With The Wind
19LouisianaThe Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
20MaineDirty Dancing
21MarylandHer
22MassachusettsJerry Maguire
23MichiganOnce
24MinnesotaJerry Maguire
25MississippiTitanic
26MissouriThe Shop Around The Corner
27MontanaThe Shape Of Water
28NebraskaEternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
29NevadaOnce
30New HampshireTo Catch A Thief
31New JerseyEternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
32New MexicoKnocked Up
33New YorkBrooklyn
34North CarolinaThe Big Sick
35North DakotaTitanic
36OhioGone With The Wind
37OklahomaBeauty And The Beast
38OregonEnchanted
39PennsylvaniaBeauty And The Beast
40Rhode IslandThe Town
41South CarolinaHer
42South DakotaSlumdog Millionaire
43TennesseeGone With The Wind
44TexasHer
45UtahHowards End
46VermontCold War
47VirginiaGone With The Wind
48WashingtonSleepless In Seattle
49West VirginiaBeauty And The Beast
50WisconsinThe Little Mermaid
51WyomingLove Actually

Methodological Summary

[Analysis conducted by Mindnet Analytics in partnership with HotDog.com]

First we used the list of the top 100 best fresh romantic movies from Rotten Tomatoes to determine a set of candidate movies that each state might be most obsessed with and the Rotten Tomatoes Top 100 Romance Movies. We combined these lists and then removed duplicates.

The data used to determine which movie each state is most obsessed with came from Google Trends state-wise search frequencies. In order to avoid counting searches for things that share the name of a movie such as “Her” we used the Google Trends search filter category 34 to return only counts of searches for movies. We only counted search frequencies from February 1st, 2020 through January 20th, 2021.

For our map of romantic movie interest by state, we summed the search frequencies for all movies on our list for each state. Thus the states that we find have more romantic movie interest are the ones that searched more for the most romantic movies.

Page Updates

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  2. Reworded some things. Formatting. Removed section.

  3. Updates to a section. Small layout changes.

Frank Moraes
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Frank Moraes

Frank Moraes is Sr Content Editor at Hotdog.com where he oversees the creation and maintenance of articles. His focus is on sports and the regional programming issues that flummox streamers. He has led the efforts to create pages that fully address problems fans have watching out-of-market NFL games. And he is responsible for the site's thorough coverage of the regional sports networks that are essential for fans of MLB, NBA, and NHL. Frank got his PhD in Atmospheric Physics from Oregon Institute of Technology back in 1995. After that, he spent much of that time developing remote sensing technology including streaming video back in the days when most people were using VHS tapes. Since that time, Frank has become a veteran tech writer who specializes in the nexus of entertainment and technology. It was natural that he gravitated toward the streaming industry. He started streaming early, back in 2007 when Netflix introduced "instant watch." Then Hulu started and he was hooked. Outside his work life, Frank is a longtime cord-cutter. He streams pretty much everything while his library of thousands of Blu-rays and DVDs collects dust. Frank currently subscribes to the following streaming services: * Amazon Prime Video * AMC+ * Curiosity Stream / Nebula * Hulu / Disney+ / ESPN+ * Max * Netflix * NFL+ Premium * Paramount+ / Showtime * Peacock He streams mostly on a Roku-powered TCL TV and a VIZIO with an Amazon 4K Fire TV stick. Frank also writes about horror and other cult films at Psychotronic Review Contact Frank with thoughts, questions, and story ideas at [email protected]. Frank's Work on HotDog.com:

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