‘Lost City’ finds top of N.America box office on Oscar weekend

LOS ANGELES: Paramount’s new action romance “The Lost City” topped the North American box office this weekend, drawing female viewers through Oscar Sunday in numbers confirming Hollywood’s continuing post-Covid recovery.

Behind the star power of Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum, the film earned an estimated $31 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported.

And while female viewers have been slower than men to return to theaters, roughly 60 per cent of “Lost City” ticket buyers have been female, according to Hollywood Reporter.

Bullock plays a romance novelist kidnapped by a twisted tycoon (Daniel Radcliffe of “Harry Potter” fame) who wants her to help him find a buried artifact on a remote island.

Tatum, as a male book-cover model whose abs are sharper than his mind, does his best to help her escape – even as a volcano erupts.

“The combination of big cast plus crowd-pleasing romance plus comedy plus adventure has worked before,” said David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research, “and it’s working again.”

Last weekend’s leader, dark superhero film “The Batman” from Warner Bros., had another strong showing, taking in $20.5 million to place second. Robert Pattinson plays the title role.

War epic “RRR” took in $9.5 million for third place, an exceptional result for an Indian movie -- especially at three hours runtime. N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan play revolutionaries fighting for their country’s future. In fourth was Sony’s “Uncharted,” at $5 million. Tom Holland plays an Indiana Jones style treasure hunter.

And in fifth, at $4.6 million, was “Jujutsu Kaisen 0” from Crunchroll/Funimation, a dark animation about a student-turned-sorcerer who battles a cursed spirit.