Actress Julia Roberts reigned atop the Hollywood star ladder back in 2001 when she won an Oscar for her role in the movie “Erin Brockovich,” but in the last couple years the A-list star has been largely absent from movie screens as she became a new mom. With her starring role in “Duplicity,” the 41-year-old actress is back for more Hollywood glory. Has she regained her crown?

“Duplicity” opened on Friday and came in third at the box office over the weekend with $14.4 million, trailing ”Knowing” starring Nicolas Cage and “I Love You, Man” with Paul Rudd and Jason Segel.

The third-place showing for “Duplicity” came despite some strong reviews for the film, which as of Monday evening had a rating of 66 percent on review-aggregating Web site RottenTomatoes.com.

 New Yorker magazine critic David Denby wrote that the film is an “enormously enjoyable hybrid, a romantic comedy set at the center of a caper movie” and that Roberts and her co-star Clive Owens “make a terrific team.” Dan Kois of the Washington Post said his only complaint with the film was that it did not give Roberts enough leeway as a star. “That famous rip-snorting Roberts laugh is unleashed once, about 10 minutes in, and never seen again,” Kois wrote.

Roberts is the top-grossing Hollywood actress with $2.3 billion in ticket sales for movies that she has starred in, according to the tracking firm Box Office Mojo. But her screen appearances have been rare in recent years, especially after she and husband Daniel Moder welcomed twins in 2004. Her only screen appearance since then was in the 2007 movie “Charlie Wilson’s War.” The year before, she lent her voice to animated film “The Ant Bully” and to the movie adaptation of “Charlotte’s Web.”

The “Pretty Woman” star will be more visible this year, appearing in a drama called “Fireflies in the Garden” due for a limited U.S. release on June 19. After that, Roberts’ fans will have to wait until 2010 to see her again in movie theaters, with her role in “The Friday Night Knitting Club.”

Critics have acknowledged that “Duplicity” is a movie that appeals more to “grown-ups” than to younger audiences. Is Roberts less likely to attract the young audiences that drive Hollywood box office as her career progresses, or does she still have the same drawing power she always had? Life after 40 in Hollywood has been notoriously easier for actors than for their female counterparts, but Roberts is more than the average Hollywood star and perhaps she can buck that trend.