[5] The film stars Constance Wu, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Stiles, Lili Reinhart, Keke Palmer, Lizzo, and Cardi B.

It follows a crew of New York City strippers who begin to steal money by drugging stock traders and CEOs who visit their club, then running up their credit cards.

Lopez also served as a producer on the film through Nuyorican Productions, alongside Jessica Elbaum, Will Ferrell, and Adam McKay through their Gloria Sanchez banner.

Moves has changed: the financial crisis has impacted their business, and the club is primarily staffed by immigrant women willing to perform sex acts for money, a line Destiny is unwilling to cross, but she does in a moment of desperation.

Along with her two protégées, Mercedes and Annabelle, Ramona targets rich men at bars, gets them drunk, and then escorts them to Moves where the girls steal their credit card numbers and charge them to their limit.

Destiny joins in, and learns that Ramona uses a mix of ketamine and MDMA to impair judgment and cause memory loss in their targets, a tactic deemed worthwhile since their victims will rarely admit to being robbed by strippers.

When some of the targets prove too aggressive for Mercedes and Annabelle to handle, Destiny suggests bringing in other girls, who are carefully trained to avoid drinking or using drugs.

Furious, Ramona cuts her business ties with Moves, and the group begins to service clients in hotel rooms or their own homes.

When Elizabeth returns home, Destiny calls and agrees to finish their conversation, recalling how her friendship with Ramona – and their crime ring – fell apart.

In February 2016, it was announced that Jessica Elbaum, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay would produce Hustlers, under their Gloria Sanchez Productions banner.

[7] In May 2016, Annapurna Pictures was announced to co-produce and finance the film, with the studio's Megan Ellison and Chelsea Barnard serving as executive producers.

"[12] Lopez, who plays a veteran stripper in the film, began pole dance training with professional dancer and choreographer Johanna Sapakie two and a half months before filming in preparation for a scene that has Lopez performing a major solo pole dance routine without a professional stand-in.

[14][15] Constance Wu joined the cast in October,[8] after putting herself on tape, noting: "I knew that my résumé at that point didn't really have anything that would indicate that I could pull off this role.

"[22][23] The soundtrack to Hustlers features a list of songs ranging from late 1990s R&B, dance music, indie pop, to classical interludes,[24] including Janet Jackson, Fiona Apple, Britney Spears, Lorde, and Frédéric Chopin.

[32] In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside The Goldfinch, and was projected to gross $25–30 million from 3,250 theaters in its opening weekend.

[37] The film went on to debut to $33.2 million, finishing second, behind holdover It Chapter Two; the opening marked the most successful in STX's history and the best of Lopez's live-action career.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Led by a career-best performance from Jennifer Lopez, Hustlers is a uniquely empowering heist drama with depth and intelligence to match its striking visual appeal.

"[42] Kate Erbland of IndieWire rated Hustlers an A− and describes the film as "funny, empowering, sexy, emotional, and a bit scary.

The Oscar chatter for Lopez's revelatory, nuanced, and emotional turn as a brilliant con artist and better exotic dancer is no joke.

"[50] Variety's Peter DeBruge writes, "flashy, fleshy and all-around impossible to ignore, Hustlers amounts to nothing less than a cultural moment, inspired by an outrageous New York Magazine profile... adapted by writer-director Scafaria at her most Scorsese, and starring Jennifer Lopez like you've never seen her before.

"[51] Justin Chang, writing for the Los Angeles Times, describes the film as "brassy and invigorating" stating that "Scafaria's clear-eyed grasp of that distinction that makes Hustlers more than just a girls-gone-wild cautionary tale, a peekaboo parade or a hypocritical amalgam of the two.

The movie's empathy for its leads and its wholly justified rage against the architects of financial collapse is held in check by the knowledge that every hustle has its collateral damage.

"[53] Emily VanDerWerff of Vox writes "as you're distracted by all that razzle-dazzle and the movie's many, many great jokes, Hustlers is quietly composing some deeply profound thoughts about the relationships women build with each other.

"[54] Brennan Carley of GQ called Hustlers the best movie of 2019 to date, noting: "starting with a bang is one thing, though; maintaining that energy throughout its entire run-time is what makes this strippers-turned-criminals flick such a masterful feat.

"[55] Rolling Stone's film critic Peter Travers was also positive, stating that, "Hustlers doesn't pussyfoot about what goes on in those 'champagne rooms' off stage.