Hustlers earned Jennifer Lopez the best live-action opening of her career over the weekend, as the real-life stripper story beat expectations with a $33 million domestic debut. The film hit theaters just six days after it premiered to rave reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival, with audiences seeing eye-to-eye with the strong critical buzz coming out of TIFF.
The movie is based on a 2015 piece in The Cut called "The Hustlers at Scores" and follows a group of New York strippers who scammed their Wall Street clients in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Lopez plays Ramona, a fictional version of the operation's real-life ringleader, who takes Destiny, a younger dancer played by Constance Wu (Crazy Rich Asians), under her wing.
Lopez plays a supporting role to Wu's lead, but her performance is already the most acclaimed acting role of her 30-year career in the spotlight. What started as breathlessly-tweeted hosannas from critics at TIFF, now looks to be building towards an all-but-guaranteed Best Supporting Actress nomination for Lopez at next year's Oscars, thanks to popular consensus, impressive ticket sales, and an Academy-friendly pre-packaged comeback narrative.
Despite the encouraging numbers, Hustlers was only the second biggest movie of the weekend, coming in behind It: Chapter Two which made $40 million in its second week at the box office. But it still opened almost $30 million ahead of another prestigious adaptation: The Goldfinch.
The big-screen take on the 2013 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel bombed in its debut, making just $2.6 million; good enough for the eighth spot on the weekend box-office rankings. Despite an A-list cast toplined by Nicole Kidman and Ansel Elgort, the movie failed to make a dent with audiences. A 25 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes probably did not help its theatrical performance, with the site's top critics using words like "lifeless," "mangled," and "dull" to describe the movie.
With most of the major festivals complete and Labor Day fading fast, this weekend marked the unofficial start to the Fall movie season, and dozens of other awards contenders are sure to follow from now until New Year's. But, we can already assume two clear takeaways about this year's race: Jennifer Lopez will compete for an Oscar in 2020. Nicole Kidman — probably not.
John Bencich, CEO of Achieve Life Sciences, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss a new plant-based compound that's being used to fight nicotine addiction.
On this episode of Cheddar Innovates: CEO of Achieve Life Sciences discusses a new plant-based compound that's being used to fight nicotine addiction; President & CEO OF DiaMedica Therapeutics explains a new ischemic stroke treatment option that expands the window for effective therapy for stroke patients; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Asteroid Rush.'
Catching you up on today's entertainment headlines with the Tribeca Film Festival has kicked off in NYC, "Black Adam," starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson dropped its first full trailer, the musical "Come From Away" based on a true story set during 9/11 will be closing on Broadway this October, and more.
Survivors of Larry Nassar, including Olympian Simone Biles, are seeking $1 billion in damages from the FBI due to its failure to investigate the former gymnastics team doctor convicted of committing years of serial sexual abuse of minors. Jack Queen, a senior reporter at Law360, joined Cheddar News to break down the legal grounds of this case. "This is one of the biggest black eyes that the Bureau has faced in generations, quite frankly, and the FBI has taken full responsibility and admitted that it completely botched this investigation," he said. "So, there's a lot of pressure to settle."
The Elevate Prize Foundation is donating $10,000 to different grassroots organizations based on a theme every month to help scale their work, focusing on a different theme each time. Upcoming prizes will help uplift an organization supporting the LGBTQ community and one mobilizing to help end gun violence. The foundation's CEO Carolina Garcia Jayaram joined Cheddar to discuss the initiative and why it's important to uplift these grassroots organizations. "We are identifying social entrepreneurs around the world to help them scale their work. but the ultimate purpose of that is to create the first-ever fanbase for good," she said. "We're trying to make good famous and by inspiring people to think about the role they can play in doing good in the world."
With real estate being a largely male-dominated industry, Stephanie Shojaee, vice president and chief marketing officer at development company Shoma Group, joined Cheddar News to discuss how she took on the gender gap for women to achieve leadership roles, starting at her own company. “It's been very important to teach all the women that work here, especially the younger ones, that they shouldn't change themselves," she said. "You need to be happy with who you are and just keep breaking barriers."
We are already starting to feel the effects of summer. Heat waves in Texas and California are already sending temperatures soaring. That could spell trouble for the nation's power supply. there are new concerns about outages in many areas of the country. Cheddar's Shannon Lanier explains the two main causes of blackouts, and what states are doing to keep the lights on and the air conditioning running.
If you have been on the road this past year, you've probably seen more accidents on the road than you ever have. You're not wrong. Traffic fatalities are not only increasing they are hitting historic highs. Almost 43,000 people died in motor vehicle accidents in 2021. Cheddar's Shannon Lanier investigates - and finds out why.
U.S. stocks close Tuesday at session highs after a subpar start to the trading day. Tim Chubb, Chief Investment Officer at the wealth advisory firm, Girard, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss. 'We're starting to see the moderation of three core things -- we've seen the moderation of prices, we've seen the moderation of wage growth we've seen in the labor market, and we've also seen a moderation of job openings,' he says.
The victims from the USA gymnastics sexual abuse scandal continue to seek justice. Survivors of Larry Nassar are seeking more than one-billion dollars from the FBI for failing to stop the convicted sports doctor when the agency first received allegations. According to a report released by the Justice Department's Inspector General, FBI agents knew
in July of 2015 that Nassar was accused of abusing gymnasts; however, Nassar wasn't arrested until December of 2016. The group that filed the claim includes Olympic medalist Simone Biles and around 90 other women. Louise Radnofsky, sports reporter at The Wall Street Journal, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
