Turns out that nearly universal critical acclaim doesn’t necessarily translate to bums on seats. Blade Runner 2049 – which is an exceptionally good movie – didn’t go so great against projected earnings over the weekend.
It’s projected to pull in US$31.5 million in the United States over the ever-crucial first weekend, against a production budget which is believed to be around the $200 million mark. Warner Bros were expecting between US$45m and $50m domestically.
Early analysis points to the movie’s monster 163-minute runtime making it mighty difficult to squeeze a lot of showings into one day.
Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst with comScore, backed that up:
The core of enthusiastic and loyal ‘Blade Runner’ fans were over 25 and predominantly male, and propelled the film as expected to the top spot, but a lengthy running time and lesser interest among females made it tougher for the film to reach the original weekend box office projections.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Some analysts expect that excellent word of mouth will sustain Blade Runner and potentially push it much further than it would have gone otherwise – like Mad Max: Fury Road, which started off slow but picked up steam once everyone realised it absolutely kicks ass.
Maybe it’ll be the same for Blade Runner – which, I stress, absolutely rules. It’s a gorgeous film and absolutely worth your time, if you reckon you can sit through a nearly-three-hour film having sunk a large Coke without needing to piss twenty times.
