Will Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum’s ‘The Lost City’ Dethrone ‘The Batman’ at the Box Office?
variety.comRebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterAfter three weeks atop domestic box office charts, “The Batman” will face competition from a nearly endangered Hollywood species: movie stars.At a time when familiar franchises, not big-name talent, have been dictating commercial success, Paramount is banking on the combined wattage of Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum to lure audiences to “The Lost City,” a screwball romantic comedy that opens in theaters this weekend and harkens back to a genre that has mostly fallen out of favor with moviegoers.Buoyed by strong reviews and A-list actors, including a cameo from Brad Pitt and villainous turn from Daniel Radcliffe, “The Lost City” is expected to earn a promising $20 million in its opening weekend.
Those ticket sales would put the film in an extremely close race against “The Batman” for first place. After “The Batman,” a superhero adventure featuring Robert Pattinson as Gotham’s fiercest defender, collected $36 million last weekend, the movie is looking to add another $18 million to $20 million between Friday and Sunday.
To date, “The Batman” has generated $300 million in North America, making the comic book adaptation the second pandemic-era movie to cross that benchmark after “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” Globally, the film has crossed $600 million.“The Lost City” cost $68 million, a hefty production budget for romantic comedies.
But Bullock and Tatum command robust paydays, and filming on location in the Dominican Republic during COVID-19 did not come cheap.
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