Diana (2013 film)

Diana is a 2013 biographical drama film directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel that depicts the last two years of the life of Diana, Princess of Wales, centering on her secret relationship with the Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan and her campaign against land mines¹. Naomi Watts plays Diana and Naveen Andrews plays Khan; the screenplay by Stephen Jeffreys is based on the book Diana: Her Last Love by Kate Snell (London, 2000)^{1 • 2}. The film was produced by Robert Bernstein and Douglas Rae of Ecosse Films and was released in September 2013 in Europe and in a limited United States run on 1 November 2013^{2 • 3}. It was panned by critics and underperformed commercially, though it earned most of its revenue internationally^{4 • 3}.

Production

Producers Robert Bernstein and Douglas Rae of Ecosse Films developed the project, and have said they were not confident of taking it forward until the inquests into Diana's death had concluded, which allowed them to treat that period of her life as history¹². They approached Stephen Jeffreys, a prominent playwright and film writer, to write the screenplay¹². Hirschbiegel, the German director previously known for Downfall (2004), said he wanted to show as many sides of Diana's character as possible, filming private moments of her alone in Kensington Palace to emphasize her isolation before she met Khan¹². The film was a co-production among Ecosse Films, Le Pacte, Filmgate, and Scope Pictures, with backing from Film i Väst, and was sold internationally by Embankment Films⁵. Its reported production budget was $15 million⁶.

Reception

Critical response was overwhelmingly negative. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 7% Tomatometer from 104 reviews, with the site's critics consensus reading that Watts "tries hard in the title role, but Diana buries her efforts under a shoddy script and clumsy direction"; the audience Popcornmeter stood at 26%⁴. Peter Bradshaw's review in The Guardian called it "an excruciatingly well-intentioned, reverential and sentimental biopic" laced with "bizarre cardboard dialogue"¹¹. Mark Kermode, also writing in The Guardian, described it as a "stodgy middle-of-the-road stiff" that swerves between hagiography and "hapless cod romance"¹³. The Los Angeles Times was an exception, calling Watts "extraordinary in the flawed 'Diana'"¹⁴.

Hirschbiegel described the British reviews as "devastating" and attributed the reaction to the country's ongoing "trauma" over the princess's death¹⁵. A related controversy concerned marketing: posters for the film were hung at the Place de l'Alma in Paris, near the entrance to the tunnel where Diana died in 1997, and the advertisement adjacent to the tunnel was taken down in October 2013 after raising hackles in the British media^{7 • 15}.

People close to the subject distanced themselves from the film. Diana's sons, Princes William and Harry, refrained from commenting on it, and Khan, who was reportedly approached for input, refused; he later told the press the film was "based on gossip and Diana's friends talking about a relationship they didn't know much about"¹⁶. Watts received a Razzie nomination for her performance¹⁶.

Box office

The film earned $335,359 in the United States, where it opened in limited release on 1 November 2013 with a domestic opening of $67,754³. Box Office Mojo records $21,430,912 internationally, for a worldwide total of $21,766,271, meaning only 1.5% of the gross came from the domestic market³. The largest markets were the United Kingdom ($3,035,442), France ($2,388,571), and Italy ($1,391,339)³. The Numbers gives a lower worldwide figure of $11,946,983, with $335,360 domestic and $11,611,623 international, so the two databases disagree on the international total¹⁷. Against the reported $15 million budget, the film's gross-minus-budget figure was about $6.8 million, a figure that excludes marketing, distribution fees, and later home and streaming revenue⁶. A contemporary academic survey of British biopics cites the film as an exception to the generally strong commercial performance of the monarchy biopic in that period, noting that it "performed poorly in both the domestic and American markets"¹⁸.

Place among Diana films

Diana was one of two royal biopics of the period that drew direct comparisons. Grace of Monaco, starring Nicole Kidman, premiered at Cannes in May 2014, and reviewers measured it against the benchmark of failure that Diana had set the previous autumn; TIME concluded that Grace of Monaco was the bigger critical disaster, though both films underperformed despite prestigious directors, well-known stars, and large budgets¹⁶. Later screen portrayals of Diana, including Pablo Larraín's Spencer (2021) and her depiction in The Crown, took different approaches, and retrospective listings of Diana films and documentaries generally treat the 2013 biopic as one entry in a crowded field¹⁹.

References

1. Diana, British Council UK Films Database
2. Diana (2013), AFI Catalog
3. Diana (2013), Box Office Mojo
4. Diana (2013), Rotten Tomatoes
5. Diana, Cineuropa
6. Diana (2013) Box Office, FilmDB
7. Diana (2013), IMDb
8. Diana, TheTVDB.com
9. Diana, Tribute Movies
10. Diana, The Film Catalogue
11. Diana – review, The Guardian (Peter Bradshaw, 5 September 2013)
12. Bringing Diana's Story to the Screen, Cinéart press notes
13. Diana – review, The Guardian (Mark Kermode, 21 September 2013)
14. Review: Naomi Watts is extraordinary in the flawed 'Diana', Los Angeles Times
15. Diana, The Guardian film coverage index
16. Grace of Monaco vs. Diana: Which Princess Biopic Is More Disastrous?, TIME
17. Diana (2013), The Numbers
18. British biopic survey (core.ac.uk)
19. The 7 Best Movies and Shows to Watch About Princess Diana, TIME

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026

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