Paramount’s “The Lost City” has ended the reign of Warner Bros./DC’s “The Batman” atop the box office charts, earning $11.5 million from 4,253 theaters on opening day and is now estimated to earn a $30 million opening weekend total, reaching the top end of pre-release independent projections.
While the romcom adventure film starring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum has some work to do to turn a profit with its reported $68-70 million budget, it still stands as the third Paramount film to open to No. 1 at the box office. After having a very limited presence in theaters last year, Paramount found some theatrical success in the early stages of 2022 with low-budget offerings “Scream” and “Jackass Forever” and is now hoping to find more with this pricier mid-budget film catering to a different demographic than the mostly 18-35 male crowd that has defined the theatrical market.
Another encouraging sign for “The Lost City” is its solid critical and audience reception, earning a B+ from audiences on CinemaScore along with Rotten Tomatoes scores of 76% critics and 86% audience. With Sony releasing another male-skewing blockbuster next week with “Morbius” and Paramount releasing the first family film in months with “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” on April 8, “The Lost City” could use that word-of-mouth to find a lane for itself among female audiences, particularly fans of Tatum who showed up to see his other recent film “Dog,” this past month.
While “The Batman” slips to No. 2, the film is still putting up strong numbers with an industry estimated $19 million in its fourth weekend, which would give it a domestic total of $330 million. This past weekend, “The Batman” became just the second film in the past year to pass the $300 million domestic mark while also passing $600 million worldwide.
An international newcomer is in third on the box office charts: “RRR,” the Indian period action film from acclaimed filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli. Released in 1,200 theaters this weekend with an event-level ticket price of $22, distributor Sarigami Cinemas reported $6.5 million grossed on Friday with industry estimates projecting an opening weekend total of around $12 million.
That result would give “RRR” the highest opening ever for a Hindi-language film in the U.S. and Canada, topping the $10.4 million record set by another Rajamouli epic “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion” in 2017. Rajamouli has built a name for himself worldwide as one of the most prolific fantasy filmmakers, winning three National Film Awards in India while his films have screened at global genre film festivals including Fantastic Fest in Austin.
Sony completes the top 5 as “Uncharted” is estimated to take $4.6 million in its sixth weekend while Crunchyroll’s “Jujutsu Kaisen 0” is set to earn an industry estimated $4.5 million in its second weekend. Sony also projects that “Spider-Man: No Way Home” will reach $800 million in domestic grosses by the end of the weekend, making it the third film to cross that mark.