Jennifer Lopez’s New Film Has A Huge Opening On Netflix

Netflix can celebrate Jennifer Lopez’s new action thriller The Mother as the movie launched to a huge viewing score, according to Samba TV. The movie premiered on Netflix on May 12th, Mother’s Day showcasing Lopez’s action-movie skills.

Live-action Mulan and Anne With An E television series BAFTA Winning director Niki Caro are at the helm. Quite notably, the movie also boasts equally critically acclaimed writers to its credits, Primetime Emmy nominee Lovecraft Country’s Misha Green, Oscar nominee Straight Outta Compton’s Andrea Berloff and also Oscar nominee Top Gun: Maverick’s Peter Craig.

Despite viewer and critics’ reception being mixed or average according to review aggregate sites Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, viewership data reflects a high volume of households watching the new movie.

Jennifer Lopez’s The Mother Reigns Over Netflix

Deadline reports that Samba TV reflects that 2.8 million United States households tuned in to watch the film this Mother’s Day weekend. According to their data, the film exceeded forecasted data by 33% among Black households and 25% among Hispanic households. A significant difference indicated families got to watch, stay on and finish the movie a number of times.

While the movie displays 46% on the Tomatometer and 73% on the Audience Score, this is also similar to Metacritic’s score of 45 and user score of 7.6/10. Reactions note the predictable plot but commend Lopez’s performance with Natasha Alvar from Cultured Vultures, stating:

Jennifer Lopez proves that she can handle any genre: from rom-coms to action movies, she can do it all. The Mother becomes highly watchable because of her efforts.

Top critic Amon Warmann from Empire Magazine even wrote:

This is a come-for-Lopez, stay-for-Lopez endeavour, and she’s on fine, movie star form in this serviceable, if forgettable action thriller.

Jennifer Lopez’s New Film Has A Huge Opening On Netflix

Credit: Netflix

Based on the reviews and viewer percentages, it seems that the movie would not be along the lines of a critically acclaimed title but definitely an engaging watch with family and friends. Jennifer Lopez being The Mother who is of a hard exterior but still keen on keeping her child safe no matter what, is a plot recipe for entertaining action sequences and moving dramatic moments. Is it possible that the three writers are too mainstream that they appeared to bring forth a rather cliched plot progression in the eyes of critics and a good number of viewers? There is no definite answer.

However, we can see that the streaming algorithm is very happy indeed. Even on Flix Patrol, The Mother takes hold of first place in TOP 10 on Netflix in the World on May 16, 2023, with 881 streaming points, and the one at second place is AKA which remarkably trails behind with just half its points at 414. More than 80 out of around 90 countries have the movie in their top spot.

Netflix Shows Jennifer Lopez’s The Mother To Millions Of Households

Credit: Netflix

Jennifer Lopez portraying an action-oriented character is not exactly new for the pop icon actress. In fact, she has done a considerable number of action, crime, and thriller projects, from movies to even television series. Interestingly she also took on the significant role of being a producer of her projects, reflecting the celebrity’s intent of proving her broad range of talents.

Lopez led 35 episodes of Shades of Blue from 2016 to 2018 on NBC as Harlee Santos. Santos is a New York police officer and single mother who worked in the F.B.I.’s anti-corruption task force. The series showed the character’s struggles to juggle career and motherhood on top of her other conflicts.

As for the astonishing performance of The Mother in terms of streaming data, what could this mean for Nuyorican Productions and Vertigo Entertainment’s movie starring the pop icon turned actress from romcom to action Jennifer Lopez? It will definitely depend on Netflix’s decision in the following weeks or months.

Have you seen Jennifer Lopez’s new movie on Netflix yet? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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