It’s not nearly as revered as “When Harry Met Sally” or “Sleepless in Seattle.” The film reviewers of 1998 were kinder to “Bulworth” and “Primary Colors.” But to me, it is the $250-million-worldwide-gross version of a cult classic.

It came out 20 years ago, and I still think about “You’ve Got Mail” all the time.

The film’s dated premise — real-life rivals fall in love over AOL — could easily have extinguished its chances for repeat viewings. Instead its nostalgic warmth glows from HBO GO accounts and airplane-seat screens.

[Read The Times’s original review of “You’ve Got Mail.”]

Starring Meg Ryan as the children’s bookstore owner Kathleen Kelly (internet handle: Shopgirl) and Tom Hanks as Joe Fox (NY152), the heir to a big, bad chain of bookstores, the film crystallized a fleeting moment in online culture, when dial-up internet connectivity was just powerful enough to spark a relationship between two strangers, but not so powerful that it could burn democracy to the ground.

There’s something soothing about these ’90s people and their ’90s problems. The central conflict of the film — an independent bookseller is big-footed by a chain — feels quaint now. Today’s chains are fighting for survival against Amazon. (I have spent many minutes daydreaming about an imagined sequel, wherein Joe Fox is usurped by the very internet that delivered him the love of his life.)