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Wkd BO 09•29-10•01•17 - Cruise spitroasted by Pennywise and Kingsman, Flatliners DOA

kswiston

Member
Friday studio estimates

1) Blade Runner - $12.7M
2) The Mountain Between Us - $3.5M
3) My Little Pony - $3.0M
4) IT - $2.7M - $298M total
5) Kingsman 2 - $2.3M - $74M total
 

jett

D-Member
Blade Runner 2049 collapsed to $12.7M on Friday.

Wow even less than Deadline's already meager prediction. This thing isn't even going to break 30 million on OW good lord.

I guess it didn't matter how good it was or wasn't. Audiences weren't interested.
 

jrcbandit

Member
Shame, sounds like BR2049 is going to be a box office bomb like the original, but it didn't have to be this way if they had a done a decent job in the editing room. Trim 10-20 minutes of the run time to get good pacing.
 

Prompto

Banned
Well let's be happy Blade Runner 2049 even exists at all

Because something similar is probably never going to happen again :/
 
Shame, sounds like BR2049 is going to be a box office bomb like the original, but it didn't have to be this way if they had a done a decent job in the editing room. Trim 10-20 minutes of the run time to get good pacing.
Pacing was great. I liked it's slow methodical pace. Wasn't afraid to have extra scenes that helped elevate the movie like all the Joe/joi stuff
 
Blade Runner 2049 seems to be a very front-loaded film. It might get a mid 20 opening (exactly 30 if I'm being super optimistic).

I'm probably going to see it next weekend.
 

Jarmel

Banned
Wow even less than Deadline's already meager prediction. This thing isn't even going to break 30 million on OW good lord.

I guess it didn't matter how good it was or wasn't. Audiences weren't interested.
I think general audiences just don’t like cyberpunk.
 

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
Wow even less than Deadline's already meager prediction. This thing isn't even going to break 30 million on OW good lord.

I guess it didn't matter how good it was or wasn't. Audiences weren't interested.

Screw the dumbass mainstream audiences.. God forbid a movie be deliberate and slow-paced which focuses on themes and symbolism instead of over the top mindless explosions.

2hr44m isn't even that bad. I look at it as getting your money's worth. Hell I grew up with Bollywood movies which are over 3hrs so this wasn't even that bad. But I forgot the average moviegoer can't be expected to pay attention for more than an hour before they start losing interest.

I know not all critical successes turn out to be commercial successes but this is just depressing.
 

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
I can’t believe BR is bombing. The movie is so good wtf. This is why we can’t have nice things.

The most we can hope for is decent legs through solid word of mouth.

Most who've seen it are praising it.
 

Jawmuncher

Member
I don't think it's a surprise to see Blade Runner lower than expected even with the good reviews. People kept bringing up Mad Max: Fury Road and I just kept wondering why. The marketing for both were extremely different and blade runner made sure to let people know "this isn't really an action movie". That coupled with the run-time which I do think is playing a factor has people not really wanting to bother. I think it's sort of a case where the general audiences at the moment are more in the mood for fun than something serious and slow paced.
 

jett

D-Member
I don't think it's a surprise to see Blade Runner lower than expected even with the good reviews. People kept bringing up Mad Max: Fury Road and I just kept wondering why. The marketing for both were extremely different and blade runner made sure to let people know "this isn't really an action movie". That coupled with the run-time which I do think is playing a factor has people not really wanting to bother. I think it's sort of a case where the general audiences at the moment are more in the mood for fun than something serious and slow paced.

I think people might not have been interested in watching a film about a bleak, depressing, dystopian future.
 

Random Human

They were trying to grab your prize. They work for the mercenary. The masked man.
I’m not sure general audiences know/care as much about Bladerunner as many of us on the Internet think. It’s sort of like the proto-Scott Pilgrim.

Edit:
I think people might not have been interested in watching a film about a bleak, depressing, dystopian future.

This is a good point
 

Principate

Saint Titanfall
I'm not sure general audiences know/care as much about Bladerunner as many of us on the Internet think. It's sort of like the proto-Scott Pilgrim.

Edit:

This is a good point

I find it weird anyone on the interet thought the general audience cared about Bladerunner. It bombed in it's initial release and is the definition of a cult classic. Also most of it's trailers have been poor.

It is a film that by all rights should have been a lower budget flick for it's core audience. This is by all accounts another Valerian. A film that exists because the director wanted it to exist and said fuck it, to it's financial feasibility.
 
BR was always a niche thing. Anecdotally, many sci-fi aficionados that I know just hate the original because they think it's too slow.

I'm guessing Dune isn't happening now and Denis just does Bond instead.

Bond would be the worst timeline. He's too good for that franchise. It's just the Broccoli show anyway, better suited for journeymen filmmakers. And I don't mean this as an insult.

I don't think one semi-bomb (that no one expected to perform well) is enough to torpedoe Dune completely. Villeneuve has plenty of momentum. Many directors with lesser filmographies have survived way worse than this and still got expensive projects greenlit. But to be fair, I don't see a Villeneuve version of Dune ever making any money at all. If it was a tv miniseries, then maybe.
 

Korigama

Member
I don't think the runtime is the issue.
I would say runtime and pacing are definitely issues. I'm less inclined to believe it's a "general audiences just don't like cyberpunk" thing so much as 2049's slow-moving approach and minimized focus on action not being something that appeals to mainstream viewers. The original BR was like that too, but while that ran for just under two hours, this is nearly three when attention spans are already more limited than they used to be decades ago.

I agree with the assessment that sci-fi films, not necessarily just hard sci-fi, tend to have a more difficult time at the box office without an action/suspense focus.
 
BR's problems:

1. The marketing was so vague. I know it was to keep the plot lines a secret, but the trailers really tell you nothing about the film.
2. The runtime. I know plenty of people who will not see a movie this long. It also means fewer showings since the movie is so long.
3. The first film is a cult classic. Which means not many people have seen it, even to this day. Maybe they should have put it up on Netflix this past month or two?

Regardless, I fucking loved it.
 

shintoki

sparkle this bitch
Never cared for Dune, so no loss there.

But while Dune still has a chance, Cleopatra is dead.

The issue with 2049 is being a 185mil budget film. It makes zero fucking sense. Not because it's long( ROTK, Titanic, Avatar, and almost all the highest grossing films are 2hours+ with many hitting 2 and a half or more) or a slow film. Its a bleak emotional ride that is not a crowd pleaser. Logan is the closest example for this year I can give, but that has 18 years of history plus a budget that is half it. The budget should have been 100mil and for them to make it work some how.
 
Never cared for Dune, so no loss there.

The issue with 2049 is being a 185mil budget film. It makes zero fucking sense. Not because it's long( ROTK, Titanic, Avatar, and almost all the highest grossing films are 2hours+ with many hitting 2 and a half or more) or a slow film. Its a bleak emotional ride that is not a crowd pleaser. Logan is the closest example for this year I can give, but that has 18 years of history plus a budget that is half it. The budget should have been 100mil.

Out of curiosity, is this distaste for Dune based upon the films or the books?
 

duckroll

Member
This.

It's a very hard setting to relate too.

I feel it is the opposite. Real cyberpunk is a very relatable premise, so much so that you should feel bothered by it. It highlights the uncomfortable things about the world, the negative trends of society, and the worst parts of all of us inside. Our insecurities, our fears, our doubts, and then it offers no answers. That's what cyberpunk does. It's not that people don't relate to it, it's that most people don't want that as their entertainment.
 

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
This.

It's a very hard setting to relate too.

Easier to relate to invincible superheroes in colorful spandexes from other planets nowadays.
 

Boke1879

Member
First off. It's a sequel to a cult classic. And it seems like general audiences aren't all that hype for Cyberpunk.

Lastly the trailers really didn't do anything for me. It looked cool, but I didn't know anything else.

This is something I'll probably buy in a boxset with the first one just to watch them both.
 

shintoki

sparkle this bitch
Out of curiosity, is this distaste for Dune based upon the films or the books?

Both, but to be fair, I was similar to Star Trek up in till last year. Beyond opened me up to it(when people said it was a call back), and something about the OG series finally clicked. Where now, I'm even going through DS9 and loving it. TNG didn't click though.
 
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