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.
Daniel Madrzykowski, research director at the UL Fire Safety Research Institute, joins Cheddar News to discuss the deadly Bronx fire that killed 19 people and fire safety tips that people need to know about.
Markets closed the day mixed, and well off their lows of the day following a market meltdown earlier in the session. The Nasdaq staged a comeback late in the day, even amid ongoing worries about the Federal Reserve raising interest rates. Doug Flynn, certified financial planner and co-founder of Flynn Zito Capito, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss the markets' close and what's driving the major indexes.
Two companies recently announced a new partnership aimed at addressing the growing demand to borrow against crypto - digital assets capital markets firm CrossTower is partnering with commercial bank, BankProv. The companies are launching a crypto lending platform that will allow Bitcoin miners to receive loans to invest in crypto mining equipment. The companies say the program also addresses the difficulty of breaking into crypto mining due to the high cost. CrossTower research analyst Martin Gaspar joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Next-gen social sports platform Break the Love recently raised $2.5 million in seed funding. Break the Love's platform and iOS app allows users to discover and book group-based tennis activities, to either learn, train, or compete. The new company has already gotten support from a few big names in the world of tennis, including the coach of Naomi Osaka, as well as the United States Tennis Association and the brand Wilson. Break the Love founder and CEO Trisha Goyal joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
As the Omicron variant continues to sweep across the country. The US Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments at the end of this week on whether or not the Biden administration can force private companies to vaccinate or test millions of their employees. In addition, the National Nurses United has spearheaded legal action to protect nurses and health care workers, patients, and the public while on the job. President of the National Nurses Union, Zenei Cortez, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
China's ongoing crackdown of its own entertainment industry has been raising eyebrows for once now. With the ruling Communist Party instructing media companies to boycott immoral and overly entertaining stars. But the country has gone even further. Now experts warn that this could lead to further issues such as gender-based violence. Professor at the Institute of Sociology at National Tsinghua University, Hsiu-Hua Shen, and Associate Professor of Politics at Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame Joshua Eisenman, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Today marks one year since the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol. The Country watched as supporters of then-President Trump stormed what was assumed to be the most secure building in the country in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 Election. Several lawmakers, including the Vice President, could be seen ducking down as they feared for their lives. Democratic Michigan Representative Dan Kildee, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Bed Bath & Beyond delivered disappointing fiscal third-quarter results for 2022. Shares initially dove more than 9% in premarket trading on the news but finished the day up nearly 8%. Bed Bath & Beyond has been a meme-stock target for online investors in the past -- so was meme-stock mania a factor in the recent stock movement for the company? Jaime Rogozinski, the founder of the subreddit WallStreetBets, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell for more, as his forum helped spark the meme stock phenomena. He also discussed some decentralized finance services and trends for the retail investor to watch for in 2022.
