The Lost City Finds $31M and Reconnects with Missing Audiences
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Loading... - Blake Barnes
- 01 Apr 2022
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Paramount’s adventure comedy The Lost City debuted on top this weekend with an estimated $31 million, exceeding the openings of several other similar comedies from the past few years, including several pre-pandemic titles from 2017-19:
· +3% above Men in Black: International ($30.0M)
· +9% above Free Guy ($28.3M)
· +15% above Zombieland: Double Tap ($26.8M)
· +44% above Good Boys ($21.4M)
· +45% above The Hitman’s Bodyguard ($21.3M)
· +50% above Blockers ($20.5M)
· +82% above Game Night ($17.0M)
· More than double Dog, last month’s title which also starred Channing Tatum ($14.8M)
Directed by brothers Aaron and Adam Nee, making their major-studio feature film directorial debut, City stars Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, and Daniel Radcliffe. The film’s release this weekend sought to reconnect audiences with an adult-skewing audiences in the post-pandemic era, seen as a litmus test for the viability of a major studio comedy in the streaming age.
Demographics
The success of The Lost City was always going to come down to reconnecting with moviegoing audiences, particularly older females, thus reviving date night programming at the movies. The film was able to accomplish just that with an opening weekend audience was 56% female and 47% age 35+.
According to Paramount, the film over-indexed in the western half of the U.S., came in at about expectations in the southeast, and under-indexed in the northeast. Notable over-indexing markets included Albuquerque, Denver, Honolulu, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, and Tampa. Meanwhile, notable under-indexing markets included Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, New York City, and Philadelphia.
Paramount’s marketing team relied on the film’s star power to launch a pre-awareness campaign that included a YouTube trailer with custom intro from Bullock and Tatum which has already garnered over 170 million views. Trailers during the Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl also helped boost awareness in key demos ahead of a talk show tour by cast members in the weeks leading up to release.
“In many ways, this is a throwback movie with major stars and a terrific supporting cast in a genre that has been somewhat scarce in the theatrical marketplace,” Chris Aronson, president of domestic distribution at Paramount, told Boxoffice Pro editorial director Daniel Loria on Sunday. “At the end of the day, The Lost City became that catalyst to get part of our audience that has been more reluctant to go back to the movies—and older demographic, skewing female. This movie became the catalyst for them to do that. All in all, I think it’s a very positive sign for the theatrical business.” Read More…
