He was a highly reputable maritime entrepreneur.
Grease - at least, Sandy *acted *a lot richer than Zuko.
*Lady and the Tramp *- says so right in the title.
I guess Larry Crowne qualifies, but then to get to blue collar Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts leaves her deadbeat, unemployed husband. So it’s still a step up, financially.
No, she and her mother are flat broke and are hoping to latch on to Cal’s money with a hot young wife, at least that’s the mother’s goal.
Is Sideways a chick flick? If so, the guy getting the girl is a high school English teacher so poor that he steals from his mom for a weekend getaway.
In the old film Tom, Dick and Harry, the poorest of the three titular swains (Burgess Meredith) is the one who gets the girl (Ginger Rogers).
The Devil Wears Prada: Successful executive assistant turns her back on the highest-profile job she could imagine so she can be with her sous-chef boyfriend.
How about the TV series Beauty and the Beast? Definitely chick-flick material (well, chick-tv at least). Successful NY lawyer babe falls for ugly guy who lives in the sewers.
Say Anything is a chick flick?
It might not have been written intentionally as a chick flick, but there’s no doubt it has a deep resonance with a lot of women.
That movie is the reason an entire generation of women is still in love with John Cusack.
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Seconding the Crossing Delancey suggestion. One of my favorite movies. Also has wonderful music by the Roches.
I immediately thought of Little Women, too. Meg bought a hideously expensive dress and told her husband when he found out that ‘she was so tired of being poor’. Poor Jo ended up with her cultured but dirt-poor older German (though they later opened up a school for boys, somehow). Kind of hated Amy for bagging rich neighbor Laurie, she should have stayed single and endlessly ‘dating’, trying to trade up, over and over.
This wasn’t a movie but a Masterpiece Theater series Flambards. It’s a story about an orphaned heiress who’s supposed to marry a cousin so her inheritance can be used to restore his estate, but she falls in love with a stable boy. It’s been eons since I’ve seen it, but I think she and the stable boy got their happily-ever-after.
LOTR: The Return of the King. Granted, he cleaned up pretty good at the end…
Not exactly a chick flick, but The Breakfast Club features a romance between wealthy “princess” Claire and working class “criminal” Bender.
Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park has been adapted as a movie, and features a poor heroine who rejects a rich, sexy “bad boy” suitor in favor of a country clergyman with a modest income. Several of Austen’s other heroines marry men in similar situations, although her wealthiest romantic hero (Mr. Darcy of Pride and Prejudice) is probably also the most popular.
Classics:
It Happened One Night, he’s an out of work reporter with nearly nothing at all (it’s a plot point)
How to Marry a Millionaire ends with two of the three heroines (Marilyn Monroe & Betty Grable) with poor guys, and the third thinking that she chose a poor guy over a rich guy.
If we count animation (and I agree they’re not really chick flicks) then Shrek is another example.
Marty – I’m not sure how poor he is – he’s a butcher so he’s not super-rich – but he’s also fat and ugly.
But since he’s talking about buying into a supermarket, he may be better off than Clara, who’s a schoolteacher and a “dog.”