The Royal Tenenbaums Wes Anderson

Box office

On its opening weekend, The Royal Tenenbaums made $276,891 in five theaters, or around $55,396 at each venue.[71] By February 2002, it doubled Rushmore's total gross at the U.S. box office.[76]

The film finished its run on June 20, 2002, with a gross of $52,364,010 in North America. It made $19,077,240 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $71,441,250.[5] With the final $70 million gross, it remained Anderson's most financially successful film when it returned to the New York Film Festival in 2011.[74] The Grand Budapest Hotel surpassed it in 2014.[77]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 81% based on 210 reviews, and an average rating of 7.50/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "The Royal Tenenbaums is a delightful adult comedy with many quirks and a sense of poignancy. Many critics especially praised Hackman's performance.”[78] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[79] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C−" on an A+ to F scale.[80]

At its premiere at the New York Film Festival, A.O. Scott wrote in The New York Times that it eventually won him over as charming, and that Hackman brought "quick precision and deep seriousness [that] nearly rescue[d] this movie from its own whimsy".[2] Variety's Todd McCarthy described the film, "As richly conceived as the novel it pretends to be."[81] Richard Schickel of Time wrote, "As with Anderson's Rushmore, there's a certain annoying preciousness to this film—it's not so consistently wise or amusing as he thinks it is—but it has its moments".[82] Roger Ebert awarded it three-and-a-half stars, admiring how viewers can be ambivalent toward the events in the story.[83] The San Francisco Chronicle's Mick LaSalle was enthusiastic, praising the film as "like no other, an epic, depressive comedy, with lots of ironic laughs and a humane and rather sad feeling at its core".[84] Anthony Lane commented in The New Yorker on the setting, which did not truly feel like New York, but "a step-city, or a city-in-law", and said that "the communal oddity" gradually won him over.[85] Peter Travers in Rolling Stone found all the cast great in different ways, while singling out Hackman.[86] L.A. Weekly's Manohla Dargis wrote it had enough laughs to be classified as a comedy, but it contained "a deep vein of melancholia to its drollery".[87] The Guardian's Joe Queenan embraced it as a "bizarre redemption tale".[8]

Some critics disagreed about the success of the film and its style. New York's Peter Rainer wrote, "Anderson is something of a prodigy himself, and he's riddled with talent, but he hasn't figured out how to be askew and heartfelt at the same time."[88] In the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan assessed the film as indulging too far in Anderson's vision, creating an unknown world.[89] In his 2015 Movie Guide, Leonard Maltin gave it two-and-a-half stars out of four, complimenting the eccentricity, but finding no storyline.[90]

Time listed Royal Tenenbaums in its Top 10 Troubled Genius Films list in 2009, comparing Anderson's characters to Salinger's, in an "ultimately touching package".[6] In 2013, Time also named Henry Sherman as one of 10 memorable accountant characters in film history, citing his decency, success as an author and lack of confidence in his pursuit of Etheline.[91] In 2014, The Huffington Post journalist Lisa Thomson evaluated it as one of Anderson's best films, and that finding laughs in divorce was a highlight.[92] In 2017, Vanity Fair cited Richie's tennis meltdown scene as one of the best tennis scenes in cinema history, making an analogy to Björn Borg.[93]

In 2008, a poll taken by Empire ranked The Royal Tenenbaums as the 159th greatest film ever made.[94] A 2016 poll of international critics assembling BBC's 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century also voted it one of the 100 greatest motion pictures since 2000.[95] Hackman has received kudos for his performance.[28][96] In 2015, IndieWire named Royal as Anderson's most memorable character, crediting Hackman for bringing the character beyond the director's norm; the same list also named Margot "the ur-Anderson female" character.[97]

Accolades

The film received a nomination at the 74th Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay. CNN reported that it had been considered as a possibility for nominations for Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction and Best Actor for Hackman.[98] Hackman did win the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, but was unable to accept the award in person.[99]