Forget Lanterns, Natalie Portman’s R-Rated DC Comics Movie Is One Of The Biggest Movies In The World

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V for Vendetta star Natalie Portman at the premiere of 'The Gallerist' during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at Eccles Center Theater in Park City, Utah

Published Oct 21, 2026, 12:01 PM EDT

Felipe Rangel is a Movie and TV Journalist ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more.

Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics."

Natalie Portman's DC movie has become a global streaming sensation, and that happens just before James Gunn's DCU returns with a new film. Portman's roster of movies features quite a few major roles, including some of the best movie franchises of all time. Her two biggest franchise roles come from the Disney umbrella. The actress gave life to Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy opposite Hayden Christensen's Anakin Skywalker. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe's slate of movies, Portman has played Jane Foster both as a regular scientist and with powers, having recently become The Mighty Thor, though Jane died.

While Portman has cemented herself in the superhero medium as Janes Foster in the MCU, one of the franchise's Thors, the talented actress appeared in a DC Comics movie years before she made her debut in the franchise — in fact, years before the MCU as a whole started in 2008 with Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man movie. Portman's DC movie was V for Vendetta, a dystopian thriller that was originally released in theaters on March 17. V for Vendetta was created for the DC Comics Vertigo imprint, not the mainline universe. Now, the gritty movie has returned as an international streaming sensation.

Portman's V For Vendetta Is Back As An HBO Max Global Hit

At the time of writing, Portman's V for Vendetta stands as the 8th most popular movie on HBO Max worldwide, according to data from FlixPatrol. The R-rated DC movie leaves behind films like the horror classic The Silence of the Lambs and the Spanish drama Sundays on HBO Max's global chart. V for Vendetta also finds itself in the company of some major releases on HBO Max's global Top 10 Movies list. Those include projects like Speak No Evil, Se7en, Play Dirty, Superbad, and more. Right now, the most-watched movie on HBO Max worldwide is the Matt Damon pandemic thriller Contagion.

According to FlixPatrol, V for Vendetta is currently trending on HBO Max in 21 countries. Those include Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru, and many more. The United States is not one of them for a simple reason, as Portman's DC Comics movie is not available to stream on HBO Max nationwide. Instead, V for Vendetta can be streamed on Paramount+ and Fubo in the US, according to JustWatch. As for the US' HBO Max chart, that list is led by Hugh Jackman's The Death of Robin Hood, with Sydney Sweeney's The Housemaid in 2nd, both recent arrivals on the streaming service.

V For Vendetta's Streaming Resurgence Comes At The Right Time

V for Vendetta's global streaming success on HBO Max internationally comes at a time when subscribers have most likely already finished DC's latest release, the live-action series Lanterns. V for Vendetta comes with a similar dark tone and mature age rating as the HBO sci-fi series, serving as a nice Lanterns replacement for international viewers. The Portman movie's newfound streaming success is also timely for the franchise itself, as a V for Vendetta reboot series was reported to be in the works at DC Studios and HBO on November 2025 by Variety. Portman's V for Vendetta movie becoming a streaming hit could help move development along.