Director Will Gluck says he expected audiences to nickname his new romantic comedy the “sex Purge,” and he’s decided not to fight the label, even if he wants the film judged on its own terms. “One Night Only,” starring Callum Turner and Monica Barbaro, opened nationwide August 7 and centers on two New Yorkers who meet on the single night per year when premarital sex is legal under a fictional government mandate.
The premise has drawn immediate parallels to Blumhouse’s “Purge” franchise, which built a $553 million box office run on a similar conceit: one annual night when all crime, including murder, becomes legal. Gluck told SlashFilm he has followed the online chatter closely. He said he understands why people made the connection but does not want the comparison to define the film, adding that his interest lies in the characters and their situations rather than the premise’s shock value.
The link between the two franchises runs deeper than coincidence. Gluck told ScreenRant that an early draft of his script directly referenced “The Purge” before he cut the line, worried the connection would overshadow the marketing. Turner and Barbaro backed up that account in a separate interview, recalling that producers originally pitched the project using the franchise by name. Barbaro said the pitch made no attempt to hide the similarity, while Turner argued the shorthand undersells what the finished film became.
Beyond the dystopian hook, Gluck has kept most of his fictional world’s mechanics loose. He confirmed to Polygon that the mandate narrowly passed Congress and that a one-year waiting period between marriage and divorce prevents couples from exploiting the loophole through repeat weddings. Parole violators can also lose their eligibility for the night’s exemption, a rule the film addresses through a subplot rather than exposition.
Reviews have largely credited the chemistry between Turner and Barbaro for carrying a premise some critics called too thin to sustain scrutiny on its own. The film also stars Maya Hawke, Molly Ringwald and Kurt Russell in supporting roles, and carries an R rating with a runtime of 102 minutes. Universal has positioned it as a counterweight to a summer box office dominated by franchise sequels, betting that star chemistry can compensate for a concept some critics have called difficult to justify on close inspection.
