Anyone but Youis certainly a sleeper hit. Released towards the end of the holiday season, the movie looked like it would be crushed at the box office by high-profile films likeAquaman and the Lost Kingdom, family films likeMigrationandWonka, and big awards push films likeThe Iron ClawandThe Color Purple. Anyone but You opened on August 15, 2025, and over its opening weekend, grossed a minor $6.3 million and was number 4 at the box office. It seemed dead on arrival.
Yet something funny happened. LikeThe Greatest Showmanback in December 2017, the film held incredibly well in the following weeks thanks to positive word of mouth and little competition in the month of January, allowing audiences to check who might have been too busy during Christmas. The story of two people, played by Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, who hate one another but fake a relationship while at a destination wedding has now grossed $189.6 million worldwide. This is certainly impressive, but it also came with a surprise to many: the film is now the highest-grossing live-action adaptation of a William Shakespeare play.
That is right.Anyone but Youis in fact, a loose modern-day adaptation of William Shakespeare’sMuch Ado About Nothing. While it might be difficult to imagine the raunchy romantic comedy as a modern take on a Shakespeare play, the two actually have a lot of similarities.
Anyone But You
Anyone But You is a romantic comedy by director Will Gluck starring Sydney Sweeny and Glen Powell. Sweeny and Powell star as Bea and Ben, two strangers with an incredible first date that goes sour following one incident at the tail end. Thinking the worst is behind them, the two are roped into a destination wedding in Sydney, Australia, where they’ll have to pretend to be a couple despite absolutely hating each other.
Similarities Between Much Ado About Nothing and Anyone but You
Much Ado About Nothingis a comedy by Shakespeare. The story revolved around Benedick and Beatrice, two people who hate one another a bitter courtship and are reunited years later. InAnyone but You, the same thing happens after a wonderful first date; a simple misunderstanding between the two leads causes them to hate the other before reuniting at a wedding, as they each have a mutual connection to the wedding.
All of the character names inAnyone but Youare modern-day spins on the characters fromMuch Ado About Nothing. Benedick and Beatrice become Ben (Powell) and Bea (Sweeney). Claudio and Hero have now been gender-flipped to be Claudia (Alexandra Shipp) and Halle (Hadley Robinson), the other central romance of the story and whose weddingAnyone but Youplays out in. Claudia’s brother Pete (GaTa) is an adaptation of the character Don Pedro. Halle and Bea’s father is Leo (Dermot Mulroney), shortened from hisMuch Ado About Nothingcounterpart Leonetto. Both stories also contain a Margeret (Charlee Fraser), but inAnyone but You, she is Ben’s ex-girlfriend.
InMuch Ado About Nothing, the central protagonists are Claudio and Hero, with the Beatrice and Benedick story being an additional plot, butAnyone but Youtakes their narrative and puts it front and center as Claudia and Haille are happy together. The film zeroes in on the enemies-to-love trope of the original play and makes it the central focus as it provides more narrative potential and lends itself well to a modern romantic comedy set-up.
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Both stories involve a group of people tricking people into falling in love, but the motivations and outcomes are different. Both stories use the “eavesdropping troupe” of characters speaking so others can hear. InMuch Ado About Nothing, it is a genuine tricks that works that gets Bennedick and Beatrice closer. InAnyone but You, it is played for comedic effect as it is so obvious to both Ben and Bea that they essentially get in on the action. Here, they pretend to be a couple to trick everyone, flipping the narrative on its head. Yet the outcome is still the same, as the two eventually fall for one another.
The most obvious connection toMuch Ado About Nothingare the references sprinkled through the set design. Oftentimes, characters will pass by banners or writing that references the plays, from signs and graffiti doing direct quotes from the play that mirror what the scenes are happening. In case it was too obvious, the film’s final moment of “Unwritten” playing over the main credits, “Much Ado About Nothing,” is on the banner at the wedding as Ben and Bea dance.
Anyone but You Continues a Modern-Day Shakespeare Trend
William Shakespeare is arguably the most popular writer in history, and his stories have served as the basis for many films in cinemas long life. Most people likely assume the works of Shakespearean actors like Laurence Olivia, but in the 1990s, a boom of classic literature period pieces started to emerge, and with it, so did Shakespeare adaptations. Many of these were led anddirected by Kenneth Branagh, including OthelloHamlet in 1996, and even Much Ado About Nothing in 1993. Yet the 1990s also saw modern takes on Shakespeares' classic canon.
Reimaging Shakespeare’s work for modern audiences is nothing new. Two of the most iconic films in the cinema, 1956’sForbidden Planetand 1961’sWest Side Story, are new spins onThe TempestandRomeo & Juliet, respectively. But in 1996, Baz Lurhrmann’s MTV-inspiredRomeo+Julietintroduced a whole new audience to Shakespeare’s work. The idea was simple: bring the classic text and language of the piece but modernize the setting and show that the themes and language were universal. All one needed to do to understand the movie was just get the modern-day equivalent references to what people were speaking.
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Then, in 1999,10 Things I Hate About Youwas released. This film has more in common withAnyone but YouthanRomeo+Juliet, as it takes the basic outline of a Shakespeare play (hereTaming of the Shrew) and makes it contemporary in language and setting. It took the play and dropped it into the setting of a teen comedy, much likeAnyone but Youdoes with a romantic comedy. It’s the mark of a good adaptation, one that incorporates the timeless themes of the play and how they are universal while showing how they fit in a modern context.10 Things I Hate About Youis considered today to be a classicand one of the best adaptations of any Shakespeare play, andAnyone But Youcomfortably now joins those ranks.
Anyone but You Is The Highest Grossing Live-Action Adaptation
Anyone but Youis doing incredible box office and has made headlines as the highest-grossing live-action adaptation of a William Shakespeare play. There are two caveats to note. Obviously, this is not adjusted for inflation as Robert Wise’s 1961 film,West Side Story, adjusted for inflation, has a box office gross of $512 million.
Then, the other is live-action. As of this writing,Anyone but Youhas grossed $189 million worldwide, meaning it is close to overtaking the worldwide total of 2011’sGnemo and Juliet, which has a gross of $193 million. Even ifAnyone but Youbeats Gnemo and Juliet, it will still come in far below both the 1994The Lion Kingand the 2019 remake.The Lion Kingis notably a loose adaptation ofHamlet. 1994’s The Lion King grossed $968 million, while the 2019 remake grossed $1.6 billion worldwide at the box office. This also does not factor in adjusted grosses as 1994’s
The 2019The Lion Kingis a tricky one. The movie was heavilymarketed as a live-action remake of the original, but no live-action elements were used, and it was entirely CGI. It was photorealistic, but that is not the same thing as live-action. Disney certainly wants to call it still live-action so it can claim it is the highest-grossing live-action Shakespeare adaptation. Yet with real actors,Anyone but Youcan claim the title of highest-grossing live-action Shakespeare adaptation (not adjusted for inflation).
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