It’s been hailed as the movie that will revive the box office rom-com.

With superhero franchises dominating cinema for the past decade or two, the golden age of the Nineties and Noughties romantic comedy that made Julia Roberts, Kate Hudson and Jennifer Lopez household names was missing, and the romance genre has largely been reserved for streamers.

But Materialists, starring Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal, is building so much buzz on social media, it could draw audiences back into cinemas in huge numbers.

Between the combined star power of three of Hollywood’s biggest players, a not-your-average love storyline, and the credentials of the film’s Academy Award-nominated director Celine Song, Materialists has all the ingredients to become an instant classic.

So jump in the girls’ group chat, or schedule a date night, and get your ticket for the cinema when Materialists opens Australia-wide on June 12.

Dakota Johnson dazzles as the leading lady in this smart modern romance, playing a New York matchmaker who ends up torn between a perfect-on-paper love interest and her imperfect ex.

A romantic new movie by acclaimed director Celine Song, Materialists, is generating buzz for cinema goers and is being hailed as the film that revives the rom com

Her performance as the ambitious Lucy, navigating the Manhattan dating scene for her clients while wrestling with her own definition of love, is being applauded as one of her best roles to date, following Johnson’s roles in the Fifty Shades franchise, as well as The Peanut Butter Falcon and Black Mass.

With nine successful matches for her clients, Lucy approaches finding love through calculation.

But her own values are thrown into upheaval when she meets a ‘unicorn’ love interest who ticks all of her boxes, at the same time the ex-boyfriend she left behind walks back into her life.

Dakota Johnson stars as Lucy, an ambitious matchmaker who navigates the New York dating scene for her clients

Marvel star Chris Evans plays Lucy’s college sweetheart and struggling actor John, while, star of The Last of Us and The Mandalorian Pedro Pascal plays the final piece in the love triangle as magnetic billionaire Harry.

With acclaimed filmmaker Celine Song at the helm, cinema goers can rest assured the film will delve deeper than the average fluffy rom com romp. The film has been praised as holding a mirror up to society’s values when seeking someone to spend their lives with.

So many people on the dating scene show up with a superficial checklist of their dream match. But the film explores whether someone’s height, job, and bank balance has any real importance in a lasting partnership built on true love.

The smart romance is more than a typical ‘fluffy’ film. It examines how society’s values in modern dating are so at odds with the widely held definition of true, lasting love

How often the expectations of dating— superficial, materialistic— are so at odds with what we know love is meant to be— unconditional, forever.

‘The math is never going to work when it comes to love, and the contradiction of that is what’s at the heart of the film,’ Song says. ‘The film is meant to be about this impossible, contradictory, mysterious thing.’

Song was nominated for two Oscars for her debut feature Past Lives, including Best Motion Picture, which she wrote and directed.

Like Past Lives, Song drew from her own experience for the premise of Materialists.

The storyline is based on Song’s time working at a prestigious New York matchmaking service while trying to get her break as a playwright.

Song would help Manhattan’s private equity managers and business elite find love with an eligible match who ticked off all the items on an often lengthy and demanding checklist.

‘I feel like I learned more in those six months about people than I learned from any other period of my life,’ Song says.

‘The things that are in the movie came from the truth I learned: that there is a very funny, very dark objectification of each other’s humanity, and therefore a very real commodification of each other, as we go through this thing that we call dating. But it’s supposed to be in pursuit of love.’  

‘The whole idea was about trying to get as big a value as you can in your market— I was acting like I was a stock market trader,’ Song recalls. 

The Last of Us star Pedro Pascal plays Lucy’s love interest, a charismatic billionaire Harry

Protagonist Lucy finds herself in a love triangle when her ex-boyfriend walks back into her life just as she meets her ‘perfect on paper’ match

‘It shouldn’t actually have anything to do with who we’re getting buried with, but the way that everybody was talking about what kind of a partner they wanted was as if they’re talking about a car or a house they want to buy. The language is exactly the same. I was so stuck on the dissonance of it.’

Song examines all of this as Lucy interviews clients and their potential matches, then wavers over the clash of chemistry versus math in her own love life.

Materialists opens in cinemas on Thursday, June 12. To see it first, visit the website to find a special preview screening on Wednesday, June 11, near you.