The Girl Next Door
A straight-arrow high-school senior, a gorgeous new neighbor with a secret past, and the eternal question: "is the juice worth the squeeze?" It underperformed in theaters — then found its real audience on DVD and late-night cable, where it quietly became one of the 2000s' most rewatched teen comedies.
The Girl Next Door premiered April 9, 2004, directed by Luke Greenfield. Emile Hirsch played Matthew Kidman, the responsible senior coasting toward graduation; Elisha Cuthbert — then best known as Kim Bauer from the first three seasons of 24 — played Danielle, the new neighbor who turns out to be an ex-adult-film star. Timothy Olyphant played Kelly, her producer, in what nearly everyone agreed was a scene-stealing performance: a charming, menacing antagonist who gave the comedy genuine tension.
The theatrical run was soft — about $30.4 million worldwide against a budget in the $20–25 million range — and reviews were mixed (56% on Rotten Tomatoes). But audiences liked it far more than critics did (a B+ on CinemaScore), and Cuthbert picked up two MTV Movie Award nominations, for Best Kiss and Best Breakthrough Performance. Then came the second life: DVD and endless cable reruns turned it into the default late-night rewatch, the movie that was always on and always worth leaving on.
That flop-to-cult arc is exactly why it's remembered so warmly. It never had blockbuster cachet, a franchise, or a marketing machine behind its afterlife — just a well-cast comedy (and one all-timer of a tagline question) that found its people through word-of-mouth, one cable airing at a time. Not to be confused with the grim 2007 horror film of the same name — this is the other one.
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