Thursday Night Previews: Hustlers Grab $2.5 million From Eager Costumers

September 13, 2019

Hustlers

Hustlers started its box office run with $2.5 million in previews last night. This is a faster start than other comparable releases, including the $2 million earned by Bad Moms in 2016. There is some bad news, but only for analysts like myself. There are not a lot of films like this released each year, so there is still a lot of uncertainty going forward. On the positive side, its reviews remain just shy of 90% positive, so the word-of-mouth should be phenomenal. Meanwhile, its target audience isn’t the kind that rushes out to see a movie opening night, so it should do even better during the rest of the weekend. On the low end, it will open with $20 million, which is very close to its $20.7 million production budget. On the high end, it could reach $30 million and break records for both the studio, STX Entertainment, and the lead actress, Jennifer Lopez. (Although in the latter case, it would be her live-action record.) I think the higher end is more likely, which means the movie should top our $24 million prediction.

There are no numbers for The Goldfinch yet, but I’m not expecting much from the poorly-reviewed Oscar-bait film.

Filed under: Midnight Previews, The Goldfinch, Hustlers, Jennifer Lopez