‘Hustlers’ rakes it in but can’t top ‘It’
A comedy about strippers who illegally relieve Wall Street men of their money made a killing this weekend — no criminal scheming needed.
“Hustlers,” from STX Films, opened to around $33.2 million in domestic ticket sales from Friday to Sunday, outpacing expectations. The success follows an aggressive marketing campaign, strong reviews (it holds an 88% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and early rumblings that the movie might net a first Oscar nomination for Jennifer Lopez, one of its stars.
Based on a 2015 New York Magazine article and directed by Lorene Scafaria, the movie centers on a young woman (Constance Wu) who starts working at a Manhattan strip club, where she goes by Destiny. There she meets Ramona (Lopez), a veteran dancer who brings her into a scheme that involves luring wealthy men into the club and, with the help of cocktails and eventually drugs, hijacking their credit cards.
The cast includes Cardi B and singer Lizzo, whose star power couldn’t have hurt ticket sales.
Yet the strippers of “Hustlers” came in second place at the box office, behind a more sinister entertainer: Pennywise the killer clown, who continues to haunt in “It Chapter Two.”
The Stephen King adaptation from Warner Bros. finished its second weekend with around $40.7 million in sales.
The follow-up to “It” (2017) made an additional $47 million overseas this weekend, according to the studio, bringing its global tally to $323.3 million.
The success softens the fact that Warner Bros. also was behind this weekend’s biggest box office stumble: “The Goldfinch,” which opened to about $2.6 million, according to Comscore, which compiles box office data.
That’s a paltry amount given the film’s considerable assets: It is an adaptation of a Pulitzer Prizewinning bestseller by Donna Tartt; it is director John Crowley’s follow-up to his critically acclaimed “Brooklyn”; and it stars Nicole Kidman and Ansel Elgort.
With a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 24%, it seems “Goldfinch” wasn’t able to overcome poor reviews.