Dakota Fanning's 22-Year-Old Cult Classic Movie That Critics Originally Hated Is Now A Worldwide Netflix Streaming Sensation

Dakota Fanning's 22-Year-Old Cult Classic Movie That Critics Originally Hated Is Now A Worldwide Netflix Streaming Sensation Uptown Girls Dakota Fanning Brittany Murphy By  Hannah Gearan Published 7 minutes ago Hannah Gearan (she/her) is has been writing for ScreenRant for over three years. Her deep cinema love traces back to age 11, when she equipped herself with a spiral-bound notebook, rated all the films she watched, and declared herself a critic. About a decade later, she received a BA from Wesleyan University, where she studied Film, Environmental Studies, and Writing. Hannah’s short film, Toxic Faucets, has screened at numerous film festivals, including the Independent Film Festival of Boston (IFFBoston). As a Movie News writer now, she draws upon her vast experience studying, making, and analyzing film as she approaches dynamic breaking stories.  Sign in to your ScreenRant account Add Us On Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

Uptown Girls is now an international Netflix sensation. The 2003 coming-of-age story centers around a childish adult woman (Brittany Murphy) who works as a nanny for a precocious 8-year-old (Dakota Fanning). It was directed by Boaz Yakin and features a cast including Murphy, Fanning, Heather Locklear, Donald Faison, Jesse Spencer, Marley Shelton, and Austin Pendleton.

The movie was one of Fanning's early roles. She had debuted in several TV episodes when she was 5 or 6 years old, but she was still just a 9-year-old kid when she took on Uptown Girls. Now 31, she has been recognized for her two-and-a-half decades of roles, both as a child star and now an adult actor.

Now, Uptown Girls has become a Netflix sensation over two decades after its release. According to the numbers from FlixPatrol, Uptown Girls is currently Netflix's no. 7 film worldwide.

Helping it to this status are countries like Jamaica and the Bahamas, where it sits at no. 2. It also has gotten success in more populous nations such as Argentina (no. 4), France (no. 5), Italy (no. 4), and the UK (no. 8).

Uptown Girls is not currently available on Netflix in the United States. It is available for free on both Pluto TV and Tubi, however, and to rent on Prime Video starting at $2.99.

Dakota Fanning standing in the kitchen and looking surprised in All Her Fault

Though a sweet coming-of-age story, Uptown Girls was not particularly well-received at the time of its release. The movie got just a 14% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes. It made a modest $44.6 million worldwide.

Uptown Girls is not a particularly festive holiday film, so it is not clear why exactly the movie has gotten its second wave right at this moment. It is relatively close to the anniversary of Murphy's death on December 20, 2009, though this would not be common knowledge to most fans.

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Fanning remains a relevant figure in Hollywood, so the success may be partially attributable to fans going back to check out one of her earlier roles. She was recently in the well-received miniseries All Her Fault on Peacock, which aired just last month. That program may have led some more people back to her work.

All that said, audiences have always been the biggest champions of Uptown Girls. The Popcornmeter for the film was far more forgiving, at a reasonably positive 61%. This favoring seems to have happened again on a global scale, as the movie gets a second life on streaming decades later.

Uptown Girls

10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed PG-13 Comedy Drama Release Date August 15, 2003 Runtime 92 minutes Director Boaz Yakin

Cast

See All

• Brittany Murphy Molly Gunn
• Dakota Fanning Ray Schleine
• Marley Shelton Ingrid
• Donald Faison Huey

Genres Comedy, Drama Powered by Expand Collapse

• Movies
• Uptown Girls

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