‘Hustlers’ Nabs STX’s Best Opening Ever
‘Hustlers’ brought home the bacon with over $33 million opening weekend. The female-ensemble cast features Constance Wu, Lizzo, Cardi B. and Jennifer Lopez in a career-best performance.
“Hustlers” gave its competitors a run for their money at the domestic box office over the weekend. The drama opened in the U.S. to more than $33 million – the best start for STX Entertainment since the studio launched five years ago. The film is also a career-best live-action opening for Jennifer Lopez.
Based on a true story chronicled in a 2015 New York magazine story, Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu star as strippers who lead a group of fellow dancers in a scheme to drug and steal from their Wall Street clientele following the 2008 recession.
“An immediate entrant into the pantheon of female friendship movies, ‘Hustlers’ – a pretty much perfect film – makes plain the hollowness of so many other iterations of girl power in studio projects. You can feel its heart beat.” Slate
Buzz began for the R-rated film earlier this month when it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. It now has a Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score, a hefty paycheck, and early Oscar predictions for its leading lady – J.Lo.
“A Best Actress Oscar nomination for Jennifer Lopez?” writes Rolling Stone. “You better believe it. As a stripper who can work a pole better than rivals half her age, Lopez is that dazzling, that deep, that electrifying. This you don't want to miss.” While the Washington Post shared, “In this raunchy, gloriously liberated revenge fantasy, Lopez rules with seductive, triumphant authority. Not only do we climb into her fur, we'll happily follow her anywhere.”
Lorene Scafaria wrote and directed the film. Keke Palmer, Julia Stiles, Lili Reinhart, Lizzo and Cardi B. also star.
Catch “Hustlers” in theaters now and available from Swank soon.