Jennifer Lopez says that Marvel has completely changed the game in Hollywood over the past decade. It’s no secret that the franchise has dominated the box office in recent years and has grossed nearly $23 billion. But, Lopez says that it’s gotten to the point that it’s nearly impossible to get a movie made unless it’s a “Marvel comic or some crazy franchise thing.”

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has become so dominant in Hollywood that the announcement of future projects is headline news. In just the past few weeks, Marvel boss Kevin Feige has revealed that Phase 4 (which will last at least two years) will feature more than a dozen movies and TV shows either in the theaters or on the new Disney+ streaming platform.

#Hustlers' Jennifer Lopez says it's hard to make movies unless it's a #Marvel comic or franchise: "When you have women characters at the front of it, it's a whole other battle" | Variety Studio at #TIFF19 presented by @ATT

— Variety (@Variety) September 8, 2019

In addition to all of the Marvel properties, franchises like Star Wars, James Bond, and the DCEU also have projects in the works. Lopez says that this has created an environment where it is increasingly difficult to make a movie that it isn’t part of a billion-dollar franchise.

“First of all, it’s hard to make a movie, period,” Lopez told Variety at the Toronto Film Festival. “It has to be a Marvel comic or some crazy franchise thing, but the smaller movies about humanity and people and life and struggles, you don’t get that as much unless you do that for nothing and there’s no budget.”

Lopez – who was at the TFF promoting her new movie Hustlers – explained that they couldn’t have made her new film with no budget. And, to make things even more difficult, a movie with female characters in the leading roles adds a “whole new layer, and it’s hard to get them made.”

Even in 2019, Lopez says it’s still difficult to make movies about women. She says the initial response from studios to the pitch for Hustlers – which has nearly an all-female cast whose characters are hurting men – wasn’t good, and it took a lot of convincing.

Also starring Constance Wu, Cardi B., Julia Stiles, Keke Palmer, Lili Reinhart, and Lizzo, Hustlers is a movie about a group of strippers in New York City during the financial crash of the late 2000s. 

So far, critics have loved the movie, and audiences have given it 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. One critic even called the movie better than The Wolf Of Wall Street.

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Hustlers starring Jennifer Lopez hits theaters nationwide on September 12th.