The 16 Best Movies in the Jennifer Lopez Cinematic Universe

The only thing that could make a J.Lo rom-com even more iconic is casting Jane Fonda to share the screen with her. Fonda plays Viola, a talk show host who projects her career anxiety against her son’s fiancé, Charlie (Lopez). Besides being an overbearing mother, she is also a relentless opponent, absolutely determined to end their relationship. Shenanigans ensue.

Lopez’s comedic timing is on full display in this 2010 rom-com, in which she plays Zoe, a woman who decides to give up on dating and become a single mother through artificial insemination. The process works and she gets pregnant—but, she also ends up finding the man of her dreams.

Based off of Anna Quindlen’s 1998 novel Black and Blue, Enough is an intense thriller that follows Lopez’s character, Slim, as she attempts to escape an abusive marriage and start a new life with her young daughter. As her husband chases her up and down the West Coast and the police fail to offer her a means of safety, Slim takes matters into her own hands by training in Krav Maga.

Gigli may have bombed at box offices during the time of its theatrical release, but the rom-com will forever be famous for bringing together one of Hollywood’s biggest power couples to date: Bennifer. Lopez met her future husband Ben Affleck on the Gigli set, sparking a decades-long love story that eventually led to their 2022 nuptials. The movie itself is worth watching for pop culture aficionados; it stars Affleck as a Los Angeles mobster named Larry, who struggles with taking orders from Lopez’s character, a hired criminal called Ricki.

Lopez dips her toes into sci-fi with Netflix’s Atlas, in which she plays the titular character, a counterterrorism data analyst determined to bring the AI-powered humanoid responsible for the deaths of 3 million people to justice. If that premise sounds a little kooky, then that’s probably because it is. Nonetheless, this is the perfect action movie to watch for a lazy Sunday night at home (and other Netflix subscribers would likely agree, given that Atlas quickly rose to the Top 10 list shortly after its release).

Before there was Hilary Duff in A Cinderella Story, there was J.Lo in Maid in Manhattan. Lopez plays Marisa, a single mother who works as a maid at New York City’s lavish Beresford Hotel. When she meets Christopher Marshall (Ralph Fiennes), a politician running for a Senate seat, she immediately falls head over heels. There’s just one problem—he thinks she’s a socialite named Caroline Lane. Cue the rom-com swapped identity trope!

In this Steven Soderbergh-directed film, Lopez plays a U.S. marshal named Karen who gets caught in the middle of an attempted prison escape led by bank robber Jack Foley, played by George Clooney. Lopez and Clooney are electric together onscreen, and the movie later received Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing.

Two years after the tragic death of Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, Lopez portrayed the iconic singer in a biopic that chronicled her rise to fame. The movie was undoubtedly a hit—and is largely considered to be J.Lo’s breakout role. She ended up receiving her first Golden Globe nomination for her performance.

Lopez costars with Viola Davis in this intense crime thriller, in which the two play the titular characters—both being mothers grieving the murders of their own respective children. Faced with the indifference of the police, Lila and Eve kickstart their own investigation into who killed their kids.

Modern-day rom-coms seem to have a thing for plots revolving around destination weddings, as seen in recent flicks like Ticket to Paradise, Anyone But You, and Crazy Rich Asians. Shotgun Wedding is no exception. Lopez and Josh Duhamel take on the roles of Darcy and Tom, a couple planning their wedding on a private island in the Philippines. But, as any bride knows, wedding planning always somehow goes awry—and things take a turn for the worse when the couple’s guests get kidnapped by pirates and held for ransom.

You can’t help but root for J.Lo’s character in Second Act, a movie that—as the name implies—follows a character on the verge of reinventing their life. Lopez plays Maya, a 40-year-old Value Shop assistant manager who secures a high-ranking job at a mega cosmetics company after lying about her credentials on her resumé. Other cast members include Vanessa Hudgens and Milo Ventimiglia.

Consider The Boy Next Door an entry into age-gap relationship movies, quasi-genre now championed by the likes of May December and The Idea of You. However, the plot is a little more thin. Lopez plays Claire, a high school teacher who has a torrid one-night stand with her neighbor. Unfortunately for her, she soon finds out he’s a student at the high school she teaches at. Things get scary when he becomes obsessed with her and won’t leave her alone.

The Wedding Planner has all the ingredients for a golden age rom-com: an impressive meet-cute, the forbidden love trope, and—most importantly—Matthew McConaughey. Lopez plays Mary, a formidable wedding planner who can’t help but fall for the groom (McConaughey) of her biggest wedding yet.

Taking inspiration from a real-life story chronicled by journalist Jessica Pressler in New York Magazine, Hustlers follows a group of strippers who plot together to steal money from the wealthy Wall Street suits who frequent their club. Lopez plays the group’s ring leader, Ramona, alongside a star-studded ensemble that also includes Constance Wu, Lili Reinhart, Keke Palmer, Lizzo, and Cardi B. For her critically-acclaimed performance, Lopez earned nominations for a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Lopez takes a bit of an autobiographical turn with Marry Me, which follows the unexpected love story between superstar Kat Valdez and normie math teacher Charlie Gilbert (Owen Wilson). Kat, a three-time divorcée who must now fend off the embarrassment of her famous fiancé cheating on her, impulsively decides to wed Charlie when she spots him at her concert holding a “Marry Me” sign. Against all logic, the two keep up the ruse for the public and media—until it’s not a ruse anymore.

Lopez returns to thrillers in this action-packed Netflix movie, in which she plays an assassin and U.S. army operative who is forced to give up her child. For the next decade, she goes into hiding deep in the Alaskan wilderness. But, she puts her skills back to use when she discovers a plot to kidnap her now tween daughter.