‘Blade Runner 2049’ Bombs At The Box Office

Blade Runner 2049 debuted this weekend amid much anticipation and speculation about how many records it would shatter. According to the final box office numbers from this weekend, it looks like the answer to that is none. Not only is the highly anticipated sequel going to miss all previous expectations, but it looks like it won’t even make the money it took to produce. This news is especially surprising, considering the A-list cast involved, the budget used, and the insane marketing behind the film. It looked as if Blade Runner was destined to succeed, but instead we may be seeing one of the biggest film flops in modern times.

So what’s the big deal? Why isn’t Blade Runner doing monstrous numbers at the box office? For me, that answer isn’t a simple one, because as previously stated, the movie has everything it should have in order to succeed. Early projections forecasted the movie doing between $150 – $170 million during it’s opening weekend. The official number is well shy of that, with it bringing in just over $31 million WITH an early Thursday night showing as well. That’s tremendously disheartening for a film that took $155 million to make. The movie wasn’t critically panned, nor were early reviews overly negative. So where exactly did Blade Runner 2049 go wrong?

One of the biggest reasons why Blade Runner 2049 didn’t do so well is the runtime. No matter how epic of a story you have to tell, 163 minutes is way too long to expect an audience to sit through. We live in an age where people’s attention spans just aren’t what they used to be, and 3 hours in a theater spells doom almost immediately. Another big reason for the massive miss by Warner Bros. is the time frame between the release of the original Blade Runner, and its sequel. The first Blade Runner was released in 1982. That leaves an entire 35 years between films. Most people who would’ve been targeted by 2049’s massive marketing campaign weren’t even born yet. Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford were there to help bridge the generational gap, but unfortunately that way of thinking was obviously proved wrong.

Blade Runner 2049 is in theaters now and stars Ryan Gosling, Jared Leto, Harrison Ford, Dave Bautista, and Robin Wright.