Warner Bros. Admits “Narrower” Than Expected Audience Showed Up For ‘Blade Runner 2049’

“Blade Runner 2049” may have topped the box office this weekend, but the numbers weren’t convincing. Despite playing on over 4000 screens in North America, the film could only manage $31 million in ticket sales, a rather disappointing return for a movie that cost $150 million. The returns are even harder to accept given the nearly unanimous praise for Denis Villeneuve‘s bold and unique sci-fi film, and the studio admits they were slightly surprised by how things shook out.

Warner Bros. domestic distribution president Jeff Goldstein told Reuters that “Blade Runner 2049” in particular underperformed in mid-sized and smaller markets, blaming the films near three-hour running time and competition from the baseball playoffs for keeping people away.

“We did well in the major and high-profile markets,” he also shared. “Alcon [Entertainment] and Denis made an amazing movie. The audience for it was narrower than we anticipated.”

To go back to what I wrote yesterday, as revered as “Blade Runner” is, it was never on the level of “Star Wars” in terms of pop culture currency, so it shouldn’t be all that surprising that the fanbase for ‘2049’ was limited. Again, kudos to Warner Bros., Alcon, and Sony for making the movie but this was never meant to be a four-quadrant hit. From a business perspective, one wonders if the decision to try and make a blockbuster out of a property that was never more than a cult favorite was a bit misguided.

One could argue that the marketing also didn’t help the film, with Warner Bros. leaning on keeping things enigmatic, possibly to the point of undermining actual interest in the movie. At least, that’s what Max Landis thinks.

https://twitter.com/Uptomyknees/status/917446628386078720

The irony here is that Ridley Scott‘s original also didn’t do so well when it opened – only after time passed did the picture truly get recognized as a classic of the genre. Something tells me that the same will happen with “Blade Runner 2049.”