The World's Pretty Woman's Return

Julia Robert returns to the silver screen this week, leading a film on her own. It has been quite some time since the world got to see her fitting into a leading role.. I don't really check it out.. but I figure that it should be Erin Brokovich in the year 2000. I personally love her since she charmed the world as Vivien Ward, the hooker who got the world to be in love with her, and then winning herself an Edward, not a teenage vampire who could ease-drop on people's thinking, but the multi-millionaire played by Richard Gere, who sucked into other people's wealth. Still a sucker. Julia returned this week to USA box office in Eat Pray Love. Not that I know much detail about it, but I have always been fascinated by her ability to gain numbers in the box office success. Not that many women could claim the throne as the female box office champion, although Julia did have several women who could had challenged her stake a few times, namely Reese Witherspoon, Sandra Bullock etc.

Most female leads need charming male leads to share the front roles in order to build a big audience in the cinema. A look at Julia Robert's success, one could see that movies like Ocean's Eleven, Ocean's Twelve, Hook and Valentine's Day have many famous co-stars, but it was the other movies which got the movie reviewers' attention of Julia's starpower. Although Ocean's Eleven was the best of her box office success in America (where stars like Brad Pitt, George (why???) and Matt Damon etc were the factors too), Pretty Woman was easily the winner in the worldwide box office - the movie that got the world to fall in love with a hooker. :p  But seriously, Ocean's Twelve??? What a shameful film.

USA Box Office:

1. Ocean's Eleven (2001) - $183,417,150
2. Pretty Woman (1990) - $178,406,268
3. Runaway Bride (1999) - $152,257,509
4. My Best Friend's Wedding (1997) - $126,813,153
5. Erin Brockovich (2000) - $125,548,685
6. Ocean's Twelve (2004) - $125,531,634
7. Hook (1991) - $119,654,823
8. Notting Hill (1999) - $116,089,678
9. Valentine Day (2010) - $110,485,654
10. Sleeping with the Enemy (1991) - $101,599,005


Worldwide Box Office:

1. Pretty Woman (1990) - $463,400,000
2. Ocean's Eleven (2001) - $450,728,529
3. Notting Hill (1999) - $363,728,226
4. Ocean's Twelve (2004) - $363,531,634
5. Runaway Bride (1999) - $308,007,919
6. Hook (1991) - $300,854,823
7. My Best Friend's Wedding (1997) - $287,200,000
8. Erin Brockovich (2000) - $258,400,000
9. Valentine Day (2010) - $215,771,698
10. The Pelican Brief (1993) - $194,968,056

Source: The Numbers, as of 17 Aug 2010