Box Office: J-Lo Makes it Rain, �IT 2� Scares Up More

Sunday September 15, 2019

Box Office: J-Lo Makes it Rain, �IT 2� Scares Up More

Girls just wanna have bonds.�

Could �Hustlers,� in which sympathetic strippers rip off douchey Wall Street brokers in the lead-up to the 2008 Global Financial Meltdown, be Jennifer Lopez�s first $100 million movie? It came in second this weekend, grossing $33 million, and such films are usually right on the cusp. From recent years:

YEAR	MOVIE	OPEN	TOTAL	THTRS
2016	Sully	$35,028,301	$125,070,033	3,955
2017	Annabelle: Creation	$35,006,404	$102,092,201	3,565
2018	Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again	$34,952,180	$120,634,935	3,514
2016	The Magnificent Seven (2016)	$34,703,397	$93,432,655	3,696
2016	Sausage Party	$34,263,534	$97,685,686	3,135
2019	The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part	$34,115,335	$105,806,508	4,303
2017	Get Out	$33,377,060	$176,040,665	3,143
2019	Hustlers	$33,230,000	$33,230,000	3,250
2018	A Wrinkle in Time	$33,123,609	$100,478,608	3,980
2019	Dark Phoenix	$32,828,348	$65,845,974	3,721
2017	Blade Runner 2049	$32,753,122	$92,054,159	4,058
2019	Men in Black International	$30,035,838	$79,800,736	4,224

�Is anyone surprised a J-Lo movie never broken $100? OK, two movies have�both animated, and neither really J-Lo movies: �Ice Age: Continental Drift� and �Home.� The best live-action grosser of hers if �Maid in Manhattan� from 2002 ($94) and �Monster-in-Law� from 2005 ($82). Her heyday. She�s only done seven live-actioners in the 14 years since 2005:

2007: �El Cantante� with Marc Anthony ($7.5)
2010: �The Back-Up Plan� with Alex O�Loughlin(?) ($37.4)
2012: �What to Expect When You�re Expecting� with mostly female cast ($41.1)
2013: �Parker,� a Jason Statham actioner ($17.6)
2015: �The Boy Next Door,� threatened by a younger lover ($35.4)
2015: �Lila & Eve�(?) with Viola Davis ($0.038)
2018: �Second Act,� girl from the block succeeds in business world ($39.2)

Feels like a film festival in hell. In three days, �Hustlers,� which is supposed to be good (88%), has made almost as much money as almost any of them. Welcome back. Now don�t blow it.

Speaking of: �It: Chapter Two� won the weekend with another $40.7 mil, bringing its 10-day total to $153.8. Nothing to sneeze at ... unless you compare it to �It,� which grossed $218 domestic by this point. A little odd to me. It�s rare when a sequel to a good movie doesn�t do as well in the opening rounds. Because the first played off �Stranger Things� and now we�re kinda tired of it? Because it�s not kids? Because it�s not new? It�s still doing great, just not �It� great.

The fourth weekend of �Angel Has Fallen� grossed another $4.4 to bring its total to $60. The fifth weekend of �Good Boys� grossed another $4.2 to bring its total to $73. The ninth weekend of �Lion King� grossed at $3.5 to bring its total to $553.9.

The other wide opener, �The Goldfinch,� has buzz for a bit, but like so many September releases the buzz died fast: 25% RT, $2.6. The well-reviewed �Monos,� which I saw at SIFF last May, opened in five theaters to good reviews (91%) and little dough ($43k).