Each State’s Favorite ’90s Romantic Comedy

For the perfect combination of comfort, nostalgia, and humor, you might press play on a romantic comedy that you can practically recite from memory. And if you’re from Washington, that movie just might be 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), starring Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles.

According to a survey compiled by authorized DISH retailer USDish, 10 Things I Hate About You—inspired by William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew—is the most popular ’90s rom-com among Washingtonians, based on Google search volume from the last year. Considering the movie takes place in Seattle and was mostly filmed there, too, it’s not all that surprising that state residents should feel a certain affinity for it.

Meanwhile, people in other states can’t get enough of Clueless (1995) and My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997). Each of those two classics was the most Googled ’90s rom-com in a staggering 12 states. Wedding-centric movies proved popular in general: Steve Martin’s Father of the Bride (1991) came out on top in 10 states, and Adam Sandler’s The Wedding Singer (1998) took first place in seven others. When it comes to the stars themselves, the reigning romantic comedy queen from the 1990s is indisputably Julia Roberts; in addition to My Best Friend’s Wedding, her films Notting Hill (1999) and Pretty Woman (1990) also ranked first in a few places.

For this study, USDish only looked at Google Trends data for the top 10 movies on Ranker’s list of best ’90s romantic comedies. (Public voting is still open, so the list has changed a bit since USDish published its results.) In other words, it’s possible that your personal favorite rom-com from that decade just missed the cutoff but is still a highly Googled topic across the nation.

Find your state in the graphic below, and learn more about the survey here.