Netflix Is Removing Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan's 'You've Got Mail'

This iconic rom-com will leave Netflix on Saturday, May 26.

By Michael Hein

You've Got Mail is leaving Netflix after a very short tenure in the streaming catalog. The beloved 1998 rom-com was added to Netflix on April 1, 2024, and is departing less than two months later on Saturday, May 26. Fans should be sure to squeeze in a movie night while there's still time.

You've Got Mail is one of the definitive titles in the romantic comedy genre, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan as its leads. The movie was co-written by sisters Delia and Nora Ephron, with Nora directing the movie as well. It is actually a loose adaptation – based on the 1940 movie The Shop Around the Corner, which itself was based on the play Parfumerie by Miklós László. Of course, fans will know that You've Got Mail is only a loose adaptation since the story centers around the early days of online chatrooms. Hanks and Ryan play two people who meet anonymously online and gradually fall in love, without realizing how entwined their real lives already are.

Ryan plays Kathleen, the owner of an independent children's bookstore called The Shop Around the Corner. She is a big fan of the internet where she frequents AOL chatrooms, making new friends. She often chats anonymously with another who user, not realizing he is Joe (Hanks), whose family runs a major bookstore chain. The two agree not to exchange any personal details online, though some critical details slip through, allowing them to identify each other later on.

Joe is in the middle of overseeing the opening of a new branch of Fox Books, which is just around the corner from Kathleen's shop. In real life, they have a few encounters that verge on hostile, while online they console each other and offer advice. As the story goes on, the strength of their feelings for each other is pitted against the circumstances brewing between them.

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You've Got Mail was a commercial hit and a critical success as well. It has aged well too – at the time of this writing, the movie has an average rating of 6.3 out of 10 on Rotten Tomatoes, with about 70 percent of reviews counted as positive. Of course, the movie's highly specific placement in time means that it has some unique quirks, but those only seem to make it even more charming to modern viewers. The depiction of the internet in the 1990s is like a time capsule, from the hardware and interface to the social stigma around "online dating."

You've Got Mail will only be available on Netflix until Saturday, May 26. After that, you can find it to rent or purchase digitally on PVOD stores, or find it on DVD.

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