With a large $150 million dollar budget, Blade Runner 2049 was projected and expected to pull in at least $50 million during its opening weekend at the box office. With built-in fanfare for the film and the inclusion of major stars like Ryan Gosling, Jared Leto, and returning megastar Harrison Ford, most believed it to be a shoe-in for a huge take on the charts.
Coming out of the weekend, however, the film only took in $31.5 million, a major disappointment for the film and its studio Warner Bros. It will be a waiting game to see if the film even earns back its budget. Luckily, the film did well overseas, raking in their expected take of $50.2 million.
This piles onto a long line of box office clunkers this year, adding it to the list of King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, The Dark Tower, and others. Non-Marvel or DC properties have struggled to connect with audiences this year for one reason or another and begs the question of where major studios will go from here.
As far as Blade Runner 2049 goes, it did receive an A- CinemaScore, but that result skewed heavily male and audiences above 25 years old, failing to entice younger audiences. The fact of its 163-minute runtime also likely played a large role, restricting its number of plays per day and an audience willingness to sit through nearly 3 hours of film.
Leave a Comment