Weekend Box Office: Hustlers scores a big opening weekend as impressive as Ramona's fur coat
Today’s major box office news isn’t brought to you by the weekend’s No. 1 earner (which is It Chapter Two, by the way). This weekend’s biggest winners are Jennifer Lopez, Constance Wu, and the rhythmic, only mildly criminal ladies of STXfilms’ Hustlers, which secured a very strong second-place opening weekend haul of $33.2 million. The R-rated, Lorene Scafaria-directed film based on a true story generated a lot of favorable buzz during the Toronto International Film Festival, leading to the studio’s biggest opener in history. Our own Jesse Hassenger called Lopez’s performance her best in years, and that’s ideal: Per The Hollywood Reporter, Hustlers is now Lopez’s biggest live-action opening, as well as Wu’s biggest opener ever, even topping her 2018 juggernaut Crazy Rich Asians.
The It franchise still had a stand-out weekend, obviously, as the sequel tossed an additional $40 million to its $153.8 domestic gross from the top of the box office. Globally, It Chapter Two has raked in $323.3 million, officially making the Stephen King franchise a billion-dollar earner between the two films. The rest of the top five mirrors last weekend’s results with Angel Has Fallen, Good Boys, and The Lion King falling to third, fourth, and fifth place, respectively.
The coming of age tale The Goldfinch also opened this weekend after its own TIFF premiere, however it failed to make as auspicious of an impression as Hustlers. The Ansel Elgort starrer garnered a woeful $2.6 million (not so helpful for a project with a budget of $45 million) landing it in eighth-place behind Affirm Film’s Overcomer. This marks another flop for Warner Bros. after Blinded By The Light and The Kitchen, as well as one of the biggest box office bombs of 2019. Elgort will likely have better luck with Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, which he is currently filming.
Brad Pitt heads to space this weekend as Ad Astra premieres in theaters while a couple of fan favorites return to the fold, like the quietly noble Rambo and the violent blood bath known as Downton Abbey… or something like that.
For more in-depth box office analysis, check out Box Office Mojo.