The Lost City discovers $2.5M in previews as it hopes to win the weekend box office

Paramount‘s The Lost City is off to a solid start at the box office after earning $2.5M in preview screenings. The romantic comedy starring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum opened in 3,400 theaters on Thursday at 4 PM. Analysts expect the film to earn $25M across 4,248 locations, but it would not be a surprise if it banks upward of $30M. The Lost City performed best in areas like

in Los Angeles, Orlando, New York City, Albuquerque, Salt Lake City, Pharr, Texas, Miami, Colorado Springs, El Paso, and Sacramento. This spread shows that the adventure-comedy has broad regional appeal, which is an excellent sign for theaters hoping to recover from pandemic losses.

Meanwhile, The Batman ended its third week at the box office with $48.1M for $311.4M at 4,302 theaters. It’s believed that Batman’s latest big-screen adventure will earn roughly $20M this weekend, which bodes well for Warner Bros.

Per Paramount Pictures’ official synopsis: “Brilliant, but reclusive author Loretta Sage (Sandra Bullock) has spent her career writing about exotic places in her popular romance-adventure novels featuring handsome cover model Alan (Channing Tatum), who has dedicated his life to embodying the hero character, “Dash.” While on tour promoting her new book with Alan, Loretta gets kidnapped by an eccentric billionaire (Daniel Radcliffe) who hopes that she can lead him to the ancient lost city’s treasure from her latest story. Wanting to prove that he can be a hero in real life and not just on the pages of her books, Alan sets off to rescue her. Thrust into an epic jungle adventure; the unlikely pair will need to work together to survive the elements and find the ancient treasure before it’s lost forever.”

The Lost City stars Brad Pitt, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Oscar Nuñez, Patti Harrison, and Bowen Yang. Aaron and Adam Nee, who directed the film, co-wrote the screenplay with Oren Uziel and Dana Fox.

Could this be the start of a significant comeback for romantic comedies? How much does Radcliffe lean into his villainous role? I’m happy to see that The Lost City previews are doing well. Hopefully, good word of mouth will travel far and wide, and the film will enjoy a solid box office run.