Second Act is a 2018 American romantic comedy film directed by Peter Segal and written by Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas and Justin Zackham. It stars Jennifer Lopez, Leah Remini, Vanessa Hudgens, Treat Williams and Milo Ventimiglia, and follows a woman in her forties who successfully pursues a second chance at a corporate career, after a friend s son creates a fake résumé and credentials for her. The film received mixed reviews from critics, with praise of Lopez s performance but criticism of the story and the script, and grossed over US$72 million worldwide.

Plot

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Maya Vargas (Jennifer Lopez) is the assistant manager of the Value Shop store, where she has worked for the past 15 years. During that time she dramatically improved sales, customer relations, and general store culture through her intuitive and innovative methods. She awaits a store visit by an executive of her company, Mr. Weiskopf, anxiously hoping to be promoted to manager. Her boyfriend Trey, co-workers, and several regular customers all assure her that she is guaranteed the promotion, but she is passed up in favor of Arthur, a non-local company employee with an MBA from Duke. Mr. Weiskopf explains that while he values Maya s dedication and success, she only has a GED and no college degree, which makes her ineligible for the promotion by company policy. Her godson, a skilled computer programmer, rebuilds her background online, giving her a Harvard degree and world travel, and she is hired by one of the store s suppliers, a large cosmetics company. The CEO, Mr. Clarke, has her head a team developing a new product in competition with a team led by his daughter Zoe. During her time with the company, Maya learns that Zoe is the daughter that she gave up after giving birth as a teenager because she couldn t cope with the challenges of parenthood herself.

Cast

• Jennifer Lopez as Maya DaVilla/ Maria Vargas Brianda Agramonte as Young Maya DaVilla/ Maria Vargas
• Brianda Agramonte as Young Maya DaVilla/ Maria Vargas
• Vanessa Hudgens as Zoe Clarke/ Sarah Rosalina de la Santa Cruz DaVilla Vargas
• Leah Remini as Joan
• Treat Williams as Anderson Clarke
• Milo Ventimiglia as Trey
• Annaleigh Ashford as Hildy Ostrander
• Charlyne Yi as Ariana Ng
• Alan Aisenberg as Chase
• Freddie Stroma as Ron Ebsen
• Dave Foley as Felix Herman
• Larry Miller as Weiskopf
• Dierdre Friel as Big Ant
• Lacretta as Suzi Teplitsky
• Dan Bucatinsky as Arthur Coyle
• Dalton Harrod as Dilly
• John James Cronin as Otto
• Elizabeth Masucci as Claire
• Michael Boatman as Edward Taylor
• Anna Suzuki as Alicia Zhou
• Ellen Cleghorne as Shaniqua

Production

In June 2017, Jennifer Lopez signed on to star. In October 2017, Leah Remini, Annaleigh Ashford, Vanessa Hudgens, Dan Bucatinsky and Freddie Stroma joined the cast of the film. In November 2017, Milo Ventimiglia, Treat Williams, Larry Miller, Dave Foley, Charlyne Yi, and Alan Aisenberg were added. Lopez was also a producer.

Filming

Principal photography began on October 23, 2017 in New York City, initially at Food Bazaar Supermarket in Queens, and then continuing in The Bronx and Manhattan, including at Michael Jordan s Steakhouse in Grand Central Terminal. Filming finished on December 15, 2017.

Music

On September 21, 2018, Sia was announced as the composer for the original song Limitless for the film s soundtrack, produced by Jesse Shatkin and performed by Lopez. On October 9, 2018, Lopez performed the song at the American Music Awards.

Release

Second Act was initially scheduled to be released in the United States on November 21, 2018, but in September 2018, following incredible test screenings, its distributor STXfilms moved it to December 14, and then again to December 21, 2018.

The studio spent $19–30 million on promotion and advertisements for the film.

Reception

Box office

Second Act grossed $39.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $33 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $72.3 million, against a production budget of $16 million. In order to break-even, the film needed to gross an estimated $30–40 million.

In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside Aquaman, Welcome to Marwen and Bumblebee, and was projected to gross $9–13 million from 2,607 theaters over its five-day opening weekend. It made $2.5 million on its first day, including $515,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut at $6.5 million for the weekend, finishing seventh at the box office. It then grossed $1 million on Monday and $3 million on Christmas Day, for a five-day total gross of $10.6 million. In its second weekend, it increased by 13%, grossing $7.4 million.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 44% based on 114 reviews, with an average rating of 5.1/10. The website s critical consensus reads, Second Act proves Jennifer Lopez remains as magnetic as ever on the big screen; unfortunately, the movie s muddled story isn t always worthy of her gifts. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 46 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating mixed or average reviews . Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of B+ on an A+ to F scale.

Owen Gleiberman of Variety wrote: Even though Second Act shouldn t work, it does (sort of). It s got flow, a certain knowing ticky-tackiness about its own contrivances. You know you re watching a connect-the-dots comedy, but the dots sparkle. And Lopez gives her first star performance in a while. Age has enriched her talent; she brings curlicues of experience to every scene. Ariana Romero of Refinery29 gave the film a positive review and wrote: All of the bumps in Maya s life are distractions from the joy of seeing Jennifer Lopez, one of our most charming celebrities, triumph, all while making us laugh and wearing impeccable clothing. Romero also praised the film s costume designers, Patricia Field and Molly Rogers. Keith Uhlich of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that J.Lo looks movie-star fabulous in her many form-fitting dresses.

Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 2 out of 4 stars, saying: Good cast, nearly hopeless script. Second Act hinges on a significant reveal around the midpoint, and it s a lulu in the worst way—preposterously coincidental, outrageously contrived. On Roger Ebert.com, Nell Minow judged it a poor film that tries to borrow from Working Girl: Even the boundless charms of Jennifer Lopez cannot overcome a mess of a script in Second Act, a mishmash that has as much of an identity crisis as its name-switching, past-hiding, resume-inflating main character.

Lopez s performance in the film earned her a nomination for Best Actress at the 2019 Imagen Awards.

Year	2018
ReleaseDate	2018-12-21
RuntimeMins	103
RuntimeStr	1h 43min
Plot	A big box store worker reinvents her life and her life-story and shows Madison Avenue what street smarts can do.
Awards	Awards, 2 wins & 1 nomination
Directors	Peter Segal
Writers	Justin Zackham, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas
Stars	Jennifer Lopez, Vanessa Hudgens, Leah Remini
Produced by	Felice Bee,Alex Brown,Adam Fogelson,Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas,Mark Kamine,Jennifer Lopez,Benny Medina,Peter Segal,Robert Simonds,Donald Tang,Zhongjun Wang,Zhonglei Wang,Justin Zackham
Music by	Michael Andrews
Cinematography by	Ueli Steiger
Film Editing by	Jason Gourson
Casting By	Roger Mussenden
Production Design by	Richard Hoover
Art Direction by	Jordan Jacobs
Set Decoration by	Stephanie Q. Bowen,Cindy Fain-Vreeland,Adam I. Rochester Sr.
Costume Design by	Molly Rogers
Makeup Department	Scott Barnes,Corina C. Duran-Rabichuk,Donald Francis,Stefanie Francois,Frank Galasso,Navya La Shay,Gina Leone,Mandy Lyons,Joanna McCarthy,Louise McCarthy,Jill Mckay,Janine JP Parrella,Daria Y Wright
Production Management	Ross Fanger,Regina Heyman,Paul A. Levin,Pamela Thur
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	Ginger Gonzalez,Urs Hirschbiegel,Keith Marlin,Justin Zackham
Art Department	Tiana Acevedo,Robert Ansbro,Daniel Boxer,Brian Lee Boyce,Jesse Curran,Lauren Doner,Arthur Douse,David Gojdic,Jimmy Hays,Arlo Hoffman,Lee Jeffries,Christopher Kelley,Feli Lamenca,Clarence McLay,Mark Skversky,Marisa Umsawasdi,Laura Wallgren,Travis Wright
Sound Department	James B. Appleton,Anita Cannella,Joel D. Catalan,Kristin Catuogno,Tim Chilton,John D’Aquino,Mark DeSimone,Dave Goetter,Jeffrey J. Haboush,Matt Hovland,Michael Kalifa,Matthew Kallen,Mason Kopeikin,Kevin Meltcher,Anthony Ortiz,Daniel Pagan,Fred Rosenberg,Michael Scott,Jason Stasium,Tim Terusa,Thomas Varga,Adrià Mateu
Visual Effects by	Anteneh Adamu,Richard Aponte,Martin Boksar,Kelly Bruce,Jake Coy,Paul Daniel,Leighana Ginther,Sean Hannon,Brian Houlihan,Tara Marie Jacobson,Nikolce Jovanovski,Erik Kallin,Byeo Ri Kim,Denis Kozyrev,Stefan Kracun,Randy Krueger,Mark Lieberman,Tyler Lockard,Jose E. Lopez,Alberto Ludeña,Cris Meira,Cristiano Meira,Ed Mendez,Miroslav Mihailovic,Bogdan Mihajlovic,Ariana Miller,Zlatko Milojicic,Dusko Miokovic,Alejandro Monzon,Milos Mrdjenovic,Arslan Naqvi,Karen M. Nichols,Fabio Pires,Russell Porchia,Erik Rasmussen,Christopher Riemann,Ruben Rodas,Katherine Soares,Jonathan Stone,Ariel Tafel,Aaron Wei,Chris West,Sara Woomer
Stunts	Alex Anagnostidis,Riley Barnes,Tim Buchanan,Andre Da Silva,Donald John Hewitt,Tina Mckissick,Jaime Miller,Dean Neistat,Josiah Nolan,Dejay Roestenberg,Eric C. Sun,Pablo Thomas,Vanessa Vander Pluym
Camera and Electrical Department	Tristan Allen,Marco Andre,Eric Boncher,James Boniece,John Campbell,Paul Candrilli,Pedro Corcega,Michael DeRario,A.J. Desimone,Sean Feehan,John Gatland,Jon Graham,Connie Huang,Alfonso Jaramillo Gómez,Mark Kahn,Tanzeel Kayani,Dexter Kennedy,Vinnie Laraway,Mitchell Andrew Lillian,James J. McCullagh,John J. Moers,Matthew Montalto,Vincent Pierce,Rob Riccobono,Brandon Robinson,Mabel Santos Haugen,Matt Stover,David Taicher,David J. Thompson,Barry Wetcher,Lorenzo Zanini
Casting Department	Dann Fink,Kyle Martin,Emer O’Callaghan,Rodney Thomas,Bruce Winant
Costume and Wardrobe Department	Alexander Allen,Merav Elbaz Belschner,Rebecca Edmonston,Patricia Field,Melissa Gangi,Suzanne Kelly,Melissa Mittereder,Nadege Pierre,Corinne Reuter,Michael Santulli,Molly Schaefer,Malik Summers
Editorial Department	Derek Cooper,Timothy J. Feeley,Andrew Francis,Olivier Girard,Ann Gray,Charles Leighton,Yaminah McKessey,Patrick Shewmaker,Tim Weyers,Pete Conlin
Location Management	John A. Accardo,Samuel Adler,Lisa Cheung,Jesse Davidson,Anthony Dohnert,Chris George,Kir Jordan,Leon Koop,Jason Kouzikas,Eric Jordan Nussbaum,Philip Prince
Music Department	Michael Andrews,Christine Bergren,Todd Burke,Alexa Collazo,Lauren Danielak,Larry Goldings,Stuart Grusin,Joe Kennedy,Jason Markey,Gabe Noel,Aaron Redfield,Nikki Segal,Chris Stillwell,Alexander Thompson,Robert Walter
Script and Continuity Department	Mary A. Kelly
Transportation Department	David Conelli,Liam Ferguson,Sean Heilig,David Labutte
Additional Crew	Ashley Acevedo,John Armitage,Cassandra Barbour,Amaris Bracey,Scott Bredengerd,Candice A. Buenrostro,Lisa Burrascano,Johnny Callaway,Kate Cavendish,Eden Cohen,Kim Dang,Anthony Del Grosso,Stephanie Del Toro,Patrick DeVine,John Edmundson,Kareem Edwards,Spencer Ela,Joyce Goldenbaum,Rachel Gordon,Ann Gray,Lon Haber,Kerry Henry,Lucas Isabella,Sheroum Kim,Keith Kuhl,Marcella Lentz-Pope,Stephen Lin,Peter Marschark,Gary Martyn,Luke Matthews,Brandon Michaels,Mandy Moore,Tandace Nassiri-Sheijani,Ali Newhard,Emerson Nosek,Kyle O’Brien,Mary Kate Pedro,Kurt Reinmund,Tiana Rios,Roxie Rodriguez,Megan Soliah,Robert Spence,Adam M. Stone,Cat Stone,Alex Torres,Julia Ward,Meghan Wilson,Nikki Cao Yang,Kate Vorhoff
Thanks	Meredith Conti,Ruthie Jones,Brooke Smy
Genres	Comedy, Drama, Romance
Companies	Huayi Brothers, Nuyorican Productions, STX Entertainment
Countries	USA
Languages	English, Mandarin
ContentRating	PG-13
ImDbRating	5.8
ImDbRatingVotes	27646
MetacriticRating	46
Keywords	boyfriend girlfriend relationship,vertigo,two word title,adopted daughter,cosmetics company