Hallmark is for the boys too: With 'The Groomsmen' trilogy, men are at the center of romantic comedies

For years, Hallmark has established itself as a network that appeals especially to women, with the feel-good, happily-ever-after romances its core audience strives for in its trove of movies and television shows. Now Hallmark is looking to expand its creative scope, flipping its strategy on its head and making a concerted effort to make men the central characters. Its new wedding trilogy, The Groomsmen, is a case in point.

Like The Wedding Veil franchise, which follows three female best friends as they prepare to walk down the aisle, The Groomsmen chronicles three childhood best friends — played by Hallmark stars B.J. Britt, Jonathan Bennett and Tyler Hynes — as they experience relationship highs and lows. Each film, which streams exclusively on Hallmark+, centers on a different friend’s romantic journey and explores three very different paths to love.

Bennett, an executive producer with Hynes, conceived the idea for The Groomsmen after serving as a groomsman himself at several of his friends’ weddings and after marrying his husband, Jaymes Vaughan, in 2022.

“I always thought there was an interesting story to be told about the male squad,” Bennett told Yahoo Entertainment. “What's that core group of best friends that's your ride-or-dies? Why haven't we told the story from that point of view?”

Hallmark’s Three Wise Men and a Baby, which became the most-watched basic cable movie of 2022, was proof that audiences were more than ready to embrace male-fronted stories at the network. It’s an observation Lisa Hamilton Daly, Hallmark Media’s executive vice president of programming, has also acknowledged.

“We realize our viewers really like seeing men talk about their emotions, be fathers, be in love, have emotional experiences [and] have male bonding,” she said at the Television Critics Association press tour in July. “We discovered that not just female stars attract our audiences.”

The first film in The Groomsmen series, First Look, out Oct. 17, revolves around Pete (Britt), a type-A pediatrician who meets a fellow doctor at a friend’s wedding ceremony. The second installment, Second Chances, follows Danny (Bennett), who’s secretly in love with the groom. The final movie, Last Dance, centers on Jackson (Hynes), a divorced father who’s less than eager to reenter the dating pool. A female character acts as the connective thread throughout the three movies, offering a woman’s perspective on each love story as she recounts them.

Bennett credited Hallmark for “paying attention to what's going on in the world” and capitalizing on evolving audience interests.

“We're in the bromance era. We have Deadpool & Wolverine, the Hugh Jackman-Ryan Reynolds bromance. To do a trilogy like The Groomsmen, it's reflective of pop culture. When it's happening in pop culture, it's something that the audience wants,” Bennett said. “Even though it is a little different for Hallmark, it's spot-on with what's happening in 2024.”

Alonso Duralde, co-author of I'll Be Home for Christmas Movies and critic at the Film Verdict, told Yahoo Entertainment that Hallmark’s content expansion also opened the door for The Groomsmen. There’s value in “sensitive men played by telegenic actors having their own professional and emotional triumphs in ways that make women feel satisfied,” he said.

“While Hallmark movies have traditionally been aimed at the network's massive female viewership, that viewership is evolving,” Duralde explained, pointing to the “gay male fanbase that's been watching Hallmark all along and anecdotal evidence that suggests straight guys like watching too.”

He continued, “Part of the key is creating storylines and featuring characters that appeal to both women and men while still fitting comfortably within Hallmark's brand of feel-good, romantic narrative.”

That’s what The Groomsmen cast hopes the new trilogy of movies accomplish — and potentially open the door for more in the future.

“We get to show a brotherhood of men standing up for each other, calling each other out, being there for each other through these hallmarks of their lives. And this is a story showing these gentlemen going through these big moments together and helping each other through it,” Hynes told Yahoo Entertainment.

“It allows gentlemen who maybe don't always watch these movies to see their stories be told. I think it offers an invite to anybody — old, young, male, female, of any background or orientation — to join in and see themselves on the screen in one fell swoop across three movies. That was a big, big goal, and I think we did it quite well.”

The Groomsmen First Look, starts streaming Oct. 17 on Hallmark+. The second and third films will be released on Oct. 24 and Oct. 31 respectively.