“The Lost City,” Paramount’s comedy and romance adventure film starring Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum and Daniel Radcliffe, earned $2.5 million in box office preview screenings Thursday that began at 4 p.m. from approximately 3,400 screens. It opens on 4,248 screens this weekend.
While the male, under-35 crowd has of late been the only group to drive the box office, Paramount is hoping the star-studded “The Lost City” can attract female audiences as well and give a jolt to movie theaters. The film is projected by the studio for an opening between $20-23 million, with independent trackers saying it could reach $30 million against a reported budget of $70 million. The film likewise hopes that it can top “The Batman” as Warner Bros. and DC’s superhero movie now enters its fourth week in theaters at #1.
Thursday’s top theaters of audiences showing out for “The Lost City” came not just from Los Angeles and New York City but also Orlando, Albuquerque, Salt Lake City, Miami, Colorado Springs, El Paso, Sacramento and Pharr, Texas, suggesting the adventure comedy has some broad regional appeal.
For a comparison, “Dog” also with Channing Tatum, opened in February of this year and made $1.2 million before making $14.8 million in its first weekend. The adventure film “Uncharted” from earlier this year made $3.7 million at the Thursday box office ahead of a $44 million 3-day opening (it made $51 million across the President’s Day holiday in February). And Disney’s adventure comedy “Jungle Cruise” with Dwayne Johnson made $2.7 million at the Thursday box office, opening to $35 million last summer.
“The Lost City” is directed by Aaron and Adam Nee and is a comedy about a depressed, reclusive romance novelist played by Bullock who gets caught on a book tour with her book’s hunky yet slow cover model, played by Tatum. But when she finds herself kidnapped by an eccentric billionaire (played by Daniel Radcliffe) who is searching for the same lost city and hidden treasure that is described in her book, Tatum attempts to prove he’s more than a cover model by tagging along to rescue her.
The film also stars Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Oscar Nunez, Patti Harrison, Bowen Yang and Brad Pitt. The film has a solid 76% score on Rotten Tomatoes at time of writing.