Jennifer Lopez’s Action Comedy Is Flying Up The Streaming Charts
Jenifer Lopez's new action comedy, Shotgun Wedding, is dominating streaming.
Jennifer Lopez recently took to social media to hail 2022 as one of the best years of her life, and she looks to have another fantastic year ahead of her in 2023. Her new romantic comedy Shotgun Wedding landed exclusively on Amazon Prime just two days ago. According to Flix Patrol, a website that tracks all film and television titles climbing the charts on several streaming platforms around the world, the film has already zipped to number two on Prime Video’s top ten most-streamed movies this week.
In Shotgun Wedding, Darcy (Jennifer Lopez) and Tom (Josh Duhamel) gather their lovable but extremely opinionated families for the ultimate destination wedding, just as the couple begins to get cold feet. As if having second thoughts isn’t enough of a threat to the celebration, the lives of the entire party are put in danger when they are taken hostage. The bride and groom must set aside their bickering to save their loved ones.
When Shotgun Wedding was first announced in January 2019, Ryan Reynolds was attached to star. In Fall 2020, Jennifer Lopez was cast as the female lead, and Armie Hammer signed on to replace Reynolds. In January 2021, Hammer dropped out of the project in the wake of abuse allegations against him, and Josh Duhamel was eventually cast as the film’s male lead.
Jennifer Lopez was reportedly reluctant to star as Darcy Rivera in Shotgun Wedding because she’d recently headlined the wedding movie Marry Me. That film centers on a pair of music superstars, Kat Valdez (Lopez) and Bastian (Maluma), who are about to get married before a global audience of fans. After learning second before her vows that Bastian has been unfaithful, however, she instead decides to marry Charlie (Owen Wilson), a stranger in the crowd.
Of course, Jennifer Lopez eventually agreed to star in Shotgun Wedding, but it was only after reading the screenplay by Mark Hammer. The 53-year-old actress thought the script was absolutely hilarious and unlike any other wedding film she’d previously appeared in. And once Jason Moore signed on as director and the cast started to come together, Lopez was completely onboard for the movie.
Originally intended for a big screen release by Lionsgate, Amazon Studios acquired the rights for Shotgun Wedding in March 2022, which was just a few months before it was scheduled to arrive in theaters. Lionsgate did retain international theatrical rights for the film due to US regulations on theatrical policy, and the movie grossed approximately $5.7 million from 29 international territories. Instead of releasing the film in theaters domestically, Amazon Studios opted for a streaming release on Prime Video.
In addition to Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel, Shotgun Wedding stars Lenny Kravitz, Jennifer Coolidge, Sonia Braga, Cheech Martin, Steve Coulter, D’Arcy Carden, Callie Hernandez, Desmin Borges, Selena Tan, and Alberto Isaac. The film was directed by Jason Moore (Pitch Perfect) from a screenplay by Mark Hammer (Two Night Stand). As of January 27, 2023, the romantic comedy is streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime.
