Paramount+ may prevent the lost city from crossing $100 million

By abbasanwarinfo Last updated Nov 28, 2022

Even though A24’s Everything, Everywhere, All at Once did better than anyone expected at the box office and became one of the highest-grossing non-tentpoles of the Covid era, The Lost City showed just as impressive staying power. The romantic comedy with Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum has made $95 million in the United States after 45 days in theaters.

That’s 3.125 times the $30.4 million it made in its first weekend. Over its second through seventh weekends in theatres, it has lost 51%, 38%, 31%, 30%, 12%, and 27% of its audience. But in the new normal, it’s already on day 47, and you can buy it on digital HD and stream it “for free” on Paramount+. This weekend, we heard that Top Gun: Maverick will have a 120-day window, that Tom Cruise is Paramount’s biggest movie star, and that Mission: Impossible is the only A+ franchise they still have. But I think it was a mistake to put The Lost City on streaming and EST so early.

To be honest, Over the past year, movies like A Quiet Place Part II from Paramount, No Time to Die from MGM, and Sing 2 from Universal have shown that big, successful movies don’t die as soon as they become available elsewhere. The fact that The Batman dropped like a rock when HBO Max started showing it on day 46 (after making $370 million)

may have just been a coincidence since the WB superhero movie had already lost most of its screens over the last two weeks. Even movies that aren’t very good make 90% of their money in the first 38 days. Also, The Batman and Encanto, which had a 31-day window and got more viewers on Disney+ than Turning Red, which didn’t play in domestic theatres, show again that just being in theatres brings attention and interest to a good streaming debut. But, considering what else is in theatres this summer and what else The Lost City might have been able to do, the theater-only window should have been longer.

The original film, which cost $70 million, is $5 million short of making $100 million. Even though I’m sure Paramount’s theatre division will still try to make it happen, it’s less likely to happen now than if it had only been shown in theatres for the next month. Even if it wasn’t a symbolic mark, it would still be the first live-action original to reach that point since Knives Out in November 2019. (or 1917 in January 2020). It would be Sandra Bullock’s 11th movie that made more than $100 million in the U.S. if you count Minions ($336 million) and Prince of Egypt ($100 million).

This would make her one of the last box offices draws, along with Leonardo DiCaprio. Scarlett Johansson has been in twelve films like this, and eight of them are MCU films. Only Julia Roberts has more (12) without taking inflation into account. With 21, Top Gun: Maverick should put Tom Cruise in the same category as Tom Hanks. She didn’t have six Mission: Impossible movies or four Toy Story movies, of course.

When it comes to the top-grossing actresses, a list that is hampered by systemic bias and gender-based inequalities, The Lost City is pretty much the only big theatrical movie this summer, and yes, it opened in late March, that is aimed squarely at adult women. Summer 2022 is dominated by men in a way that hasn’t been seen since 2013 when Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy’s The Heat was one of the only big “for women/by women”

movies from a major studio during that season. You can watch Doctor Strange 2, Thor 4, Lightyear, Top Gun: Maverick, Bullet Train, Elvis, and Minions: The Rise of Gru. Downton Abbey: A New Era is for grandma and grandpa, and Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer may be the leads in Jordan Peele’s Nope. In fact, Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt may be the only actors in Jurassic World: Dominion (as were the two previous entries). But at first glance, there don’t seem to be any “big deal” movies with female leads this summer.

Some of that is because of things that are unique to COVID. We saw a lot of “not a white guy” star vehicles (Wonder Woman 1984, Mulan, The Mitchells vs. the Machines, etc.) being sent to streamers or released in very difficult circumstances, such as short windows, day-and-date hybrid strategies, and other factors. But it doesn’t look good that Hollywood filled up last summer with F9, Candyman, Black Widow, Space Jam: A New Legacy, Shang-Chi, Jungle Cruise, Spiral,

and Snake Eyes while waiting for Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, No Time to Die, and Spider-Man: No Way Home to come out. Also, Disney sent a number of original and/or different animated films (Raya and the Last Dragon, Encanto, Turning Red, Soul, Luca, etc.) to streaming services or theatres under less-than-ideal conditions, but they saved Pixar’s first all-in theatrical release since Onward for Buzz Lightyear. That’s not entirely fair given that Ryan Reynolds’ film Free Guy was released last summer, but it demonstrates how bad things are now.

Between Lost City, Viola Davis’s The Woman King, and Florence Pugh’s Don’t Worry, Darling in mid-September, Sony’s Where the Crawdads Sing (out on July 15) is the only mainstream movie with a female lead that comes out between then and mid-September. Last weekend, Lost City made $2.8 million, so it’s not like it would have crept to $150 million in the U.S. if left alone. We’ll see how the movie does as the only option for its target audience. That goes double for Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which has made more than $170 million.

Paramount FAQS

Did the lost city make money?

The Lost City came out in March of this year, and after a long run in theatres, it has made more than $100 million in the United States, for a total of $187 million worldwide on a budget of $68 million.

Who is the target audience for the lost city?

88% of women under 35 say they are very or somewhat comfortable at the movies now, and 79% of men over 35, who are expected to go to the movies with their wives or dates, say they are very or somewhat comfortable at the movies now.

What are they looking for in the lost city?

She leaves the event, annoyed by what happened, and is then kidnapped and brought face to face with Abigail Fairfax, a billionaire (Daniel Radcliffe). He has been looking for the lost city of D to find the crown of fire. She has written about both of these things in her books.

Who is the main villain in The Lost City?

Abigail Fairfax is played by Radcliffe. She is an eccentric billionaire who kidnaps Sandra Bullock’s adventure writer Loretta Sage in order to get his hands on some long-lost treasure.

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