Box office
Love Actually grossed $59.7 million in the United States and Canada, $62.7 million in the United Kingdom, and $122.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $244.9 million, against a budget of $40 million.[33] It spent its first five weeks in the Top 10 at the U.S. box office.[34]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 64% of 225 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "A sugary tale overstuffed with too many stories. Still, the cast charms."[35] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 55 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[36]
Michael Atkinson of The Village Voice called it "love British style, handicapped slightly by corny circumstance and populated by colorful neurotics".[37] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three and a half out of four stars, describing it as "a belly-flop into the sea of romantic comedy ... The movie's only flaw is also a virtue: ... It feels a little like a gourmet meal that turns into a hot-dog eating contest."[38]
Nev Pierce of the BBC awarded it four of a possible five stars and called it a "vibrant romantic comedy ... Warm, bittersweet and hilarious, this is lovely, actually. Prepare to be smitten."[39]
In his review in The New York Times, journalist A. O. Scott called it "a romantic comedy swollen to the length of an Oscar-trawling epic" and added, "it is more like a record label's greatest-hits compilation or a very special sitcom clip-reel show than an actual movie."[40]
In Rolling Stone, Peter Travers rated it two stars out of a possible four, saying "there are laughs laced with feeling here, but the deft screenwriter Richard Curtis dilutes the impact by tossing in more and more stories."[41] Christopher Orr of The Atlantic was negative toward the work and described it as the least romantic movie of all time, considering its ultimate message to be "It's probably best if you give up on love altogether and get on with the rest of your life."[42][43]
Since initial release Love Actually has become a cult film with audiences habitually viewing it as a holiday staple.[44][45] It remains broadly popular with audiences and has been discussed as an arguable modern-day Christmas classic.[46][47][48][49]
