Ah, Valentine’s Day! It’s the best time of the year to sit down and pay your respects to the best romantic comedies over the years, whether that’s alongside a longtime partner, a prospective love interest, a group of platonic friends or by your lonesome with some chocolates in hand. As the February holiday arrives, an unexpected Nicolas Cage rom-com is trending on Netflix’s U.S. charts.
Netflix’s top movie charts are always fun to gauge what other people with a Netflix subscription are watching at the same time you are. Most of the time, the streaming service’s newest releases rule the charts, but right now, the top movies are all over the map. When it comes to the biggest romantic comedy being viewed by those in the United States, 1994’s It Could Happen To You, starring Nicolas Cage, Bridget Fonda, Rosie Perez and Stanley Tucci, is among the list, just in time for Valentine’s Day.
When it comes to Nicolas Cage and the romance genre, one usually thinks of Moonstruck co-starring Cher. It’s a beloved rom-com that even won three Oscars following its successful box office run. It Could Happen To You is a much more under-the-radar Nicolas Cage romance, and yet it’s ranking high right now. The movie follows Cage as a cop who vows to a waitress that they’ll split the earnings to his lottery ticket if he wins when he cannot afford to tip her. When the unlikely pair actually win the lottery, it becomes the beginning of their love story.
Funny enough, for Cage’s main character, Charlie Lang, he’s actually already married in the movie to Rosie Perez’s Muriel, but is super unhappy. So when he meets Bridget Fonda’s Yvonne, his life really turns upside down. Charlie and Yvonne become celebrities overnight once they score the lotto’s winning numbers, leading his wife to get super jealous and scheme to steal his wealth.
It Could Happen To You is actually based on a true story where a waitress and a police officer decide to split a lottery ticket in lieu of him tipping her and the same thing happens, with them striking gold on $6 million. They ended up splitting the money evenly. The movie is inspired by the premise, but takes some major creative liberties with what happens after the setup.
The movie is not among Nicolas Cage’s own personal favorites of his movies, nor does it feature a trademark meltdown from the actor. When it came out, it received positive reviews from critics and wasn’t necessarily a massive hit or a bomb at the box office. The movie joined Netflix on February 1.
Cage is set to star in two fresh 2024 movies, between Arcadian coming out on March 11 and Longlegs hitting theaters on July 12. Before those upcoming horror movies come our way, you can check out It Could Happen To You right now on Netflix, just in time for Valentine’s Day!