Sandra Bullock

The cast and crew of 'The Lost City' didn't just make their film during COVID-19 — they also battled their own rampant stomach illness on set.

The Lost City is in theaters now. "We all were coming out of the pandemic, fear, being locked in our homes, and we got really lucky with everyone being on the same page on what kind of adventure we wanted to have, how we were going to be for each other, and what kind of movie we were going to make," she says. "We were in the middle of a pandemic.

By Rebecca Rubin LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) - Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum's screwball romantic comedy "The Lost City" collected $31 million at No...

Ticket buyers were mostly receptive to “The Lost City,” which landed a “B+” CinemaScore. Still, “Jujutsu Kaisen 0” has earned a solid $27 million to date. “RRR,” which clocks in over three hours, cost $73 million to produce. “The Lost City” cost $68 million, which is fairly expensive for a rom-com. “This is an excellent opening,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “Romantic comedies have been in decline for a dozen years, well before the pandemic. That’s a huge accomplishment in an era where familiar franchises have been dictating commercial success (at least, compared to the promise of A-list stars). At the same time, “The Lost City,” an original adventure that has been described as “Romancing the Stone” meets “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” indicates that romantic comedies haven’t entirely fallen out of favor with moviegoers.

What's a better look than Batman scowling in a cape and cowl? Sandra Bullock slinging zings in a spangly fuchsia jumpsuit. She's even more appealing when ...

All of which to say that The Lost City, a devilishly daffy film from Aaron and Adam Nee in which a romance novelist and her lunkhead cover model end up in a real life treasure hunting caper, is projected to be the winner at the box office this weekend. This demographic has been, according to Deadline, “cautious about moviegoing during the pandemic.” She’s even more appealing when trading barbs and japes with Channing Tatum as they race through the jungle in an old fashioned, idiotic (but in a good way) adventure picture.

Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum led the adventure comedy throwback 'The Lost City' to a $31-million debut in U.S., Canadian theaters this weekend.

The specialty box office also got a lift from A24’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which opened with $50,965 from 10 locations. And theaters are hoping “The Lost City” kicks off a new period of stability. 7. “Dog,” $2.1 million. 9. “Sing 2,” $1.3 million. 6. “X,” $2.2 million. 4. “Uncharted,” $5 million. 3. “RRR,” $9.5 million. 2. “The Batman,” $20.5 million. Bullock has long been a singular top draw, but her great appeal had in recent years been felt most on Netflix, where 2018’s “Bird Box” became one of the streamer’s most-watched releases. But for the first time this year, the release calendar is about to get consistently busy. 1. “The Lost City,” $31 million. During the pandemic, male moviegoers have been quicker to return.

Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum star in Paramount Pictures' "THE LOST CITY." Kimberley French. Paramount's hot streak continued as The Lost City topped the ...

That’s not even counting the Christmas season releases like Miss Congeniality and Two Weeks' Notice or the “way back when” word-of-mouth monsters like Speed ($121 million from a $14 million debut in 1994) or While You Were Sleeping ($81 million/$9 million in 1995). Moreover, it’s not like the next handful of wide releases (Morbius, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore and Ambulance) are chasing the same demographics. Paramount has been on a mini-roll of late, pulling good grosses for Scream ($82 million from a $33 million Fri-Mon debut) and Jackass Forever ($58 million/$22 million). The Lost City is the kind of star-driven high-concept flick that used to be Hollywood’s bread and butter, and the Viacom studio suffered worst of all when the bottom fell out on that sub-genre over the last six years. Gravity and The Proposal earned five times their respective openings, while Ocean’s 8 earned 3.5x its $40 million debut, The Heat quadrupled its $39 million launch and The Blind Side earned 7.7x a $33 million debut in late 2009. She has also remained well-liked on all sides of the political isle/culture wars and vanishes from public view when she’s not promoting a project. Moreover, Bullock has been a consistently bankable movie star for 25 years, from While You Were Sleeping in 1995 to Ocean’s 8 in 2018. It helps that The Lost City, which received an indecisive B+ from Cinemascore, contained four of the five “required items” for a viable “just a movie” release in pre-Covid times.

Sandra Bullock has a celebrated filmography that goes back decades. So which of The Lost City star's films did Metacritic voters rank as the best?

Gravity’s overall atmosphere and the heroic journey of the protagonist blend in perfectly to become a movie with endless replay value. Capote is played by Toby Jones, while Sandra Bullock appears as novelist Harper Lee as she assists Capote in his analysis of the book’s themes. Val Kilmer voices the protagonist while Sandra Bullock lends her voice to the role of Miriam, the biological sister of Moses. Sandra Bullock led a revival of the Ocean’s franchise with a female-led spin-off that follows the same premise. The Lost City has now joined the list of well-received rom-coms to star Sandra Bullock, with critics appreciating the return to the classic action romance style that’s been missing for a while. A spin-off prequel to the Despicable Me series, the origins of the Minions sidekicks is detailed here.