Nicole Kidman achieves first box office hit as lead actress in 17 years

Nicole Kidman is one of the biggest movie stars in the world, but her new film has just reached a milestone she hasn’t achieved in two decades.

She’s one of the biggest and most recognisable movie stars in the world, so it’s hard to fathom that Nicole Kidman hasn’t had a box office win as a lead actress in almost two decades.

The beloved Australian actress has earned deservedly earned five Oscar nominations, including one win, and has taken home two Emmy Awards, six Golden Globes and a BAFTA.

However, major box office success has evaded her for the last 17 years, to the point where in the mid-2000s she was cruelly labelled “box office poison”.

Nicole Kidman attends the 2025 National Board of Review Gala at Cipriani 42nd Street on January 07, 2025 in New York City. Photo: Mike Coppola/Getty Images.

Thankfully, Kidman can finally put all that behind her.

As of last weekend, her new erotic thriller, Babygirl, has become the first movie with her in the lead role to cross A$32 million at the US box office.

Before Babygirl’s breakout success, Kidman’s last hit as a lead actress was when she led Baz Luhrmann’s epic Australia in 2008, opposite Hugh Jackman, which at the time was even considered somewhat of a disaster.

Kidman in Halina Reijn’s erotic drama Babygirl. Picture: Supplied.

It marks the end of a long list of misses that included the likes of The Invasion, The Stepford Wives, Before I Go To Sleep, Trespass andeven the critically lauded Margo At The Wedding, all of which bombed upon release.

Even outside of her lead roles, Kidman still struggled through a series of notable flops in the 2000s and the noughties that sparked her infamous “box office” poison title.

Following the release of The Invasion, a much-maligned take on Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, a movie critic at The Guardian urged Kidman to retire to save herself further embarrassment.

Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth starred in box office flop Before I Go To Sleep. Picture: Supplied.

Kidman and Hugh Jackman starred together in romantic epic Australia. Picture: Supplied.

“Invasion is almost the 10th Kidman movie in a row that has vanished without trace,” wrote film critic John Patterson.

“If only you’d retire. Because now would be the time. If you wait any longer, Hollywood’s powers that be – or their accountants – will rise from their crypts one morning and realise it is time to cut their losses re: your not entirely brilliant career. Anyone devoted to the bottom line will sooner or later notice that you have become Miss Joan Crawford 1944: which is to say, box office poison.”

While some of Kidman’s movie choices did miss the mark, it’s unfair not to note that while so many actors chase after box office receipts, she made some of the most divisive, outlandish and straight-up bizarre films that other mainstream stars would run from.

While her peers were busy signing onto superhero movies and blockbusters, Kidman was making films like Dogville, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Paperboy, Birth and of course, her most daring choice of all: Adam Sandler’s Just Go With It.

Thankfully, Kidman didn’t listen to her critics, and went on to carve out a career for herself as the Queen of TV thrillers — can this woman ever play a character with a happy marriage? — and has once again risen to become one of the most revered stars in Hollywood today.

Originally published as Nicole Kidman achieves first box office hit as lead actress in 17 years