Blade Runner 2049 debuted this weekend with $31.5million across the United States and Canada, early estimates show.
This means the 35-years-in-the-making sequel to the beloved Ridley Scott film is opening significantly below expectations.
The film, with a budget widely quoted as $150million, had been tracking for an opening between $45million and $55million.
Box office tracker BoxOfficeMojo predicted the Ryan Gosling- and Harrison Ford-starring action vehicle would open with $51million.
Some thought it might go even higher due to its rave reviews, A-list cast and massive hype.
Pictured is a still showing Harrison Ford, 75, in Blade Runner 2049, which debuted with $31.5million across the United States and Canada this weekend
The film stars Ford, Ryan Gosling (pictured), 36, Jared Leto, 45, and Robin Wright, 51
The film has been critically praised for its narrative and its stunning visuals
Ford and Gosling appear at a promotional event in London with co-stars Sylvia Hoeks (left), 34, and Ana de Armas (right), 29
The film drew comparisons to May 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road (long in-the-making production, R-rating, stellar reviews) and October 2013’s Gravity (release date, science fiction theme). Those films opened, respectively, with $45million and $55million.
But the new Blade Runner opened more in-line with a mid-level release. It even opened below Scott’s last film, Alien: Covenant, which debuted with $36million this past May before poor legs carried it to a $74million total.
The film’s opening weekend nonetheless eclipsed the entire run of the original 1982 film, which made $27million, or $83million adjusted for inflation. It is unclear whether the 2017 film will be able to match the latter figure. The original film has made an extra $5million from two different re-releases.
The original Blade Runner flopped back in 1982 amid other science-fiction success stories such as the Star Wars franchise, and other Harrison Ford franchise vehicles such as the Indiana Jones films. Its budget has been quoted as being about the same as its original box office run.
Pictured is a still of Jared Leto from the film, which had been predicted to debut with at least $45million
The new film (pictured) debuts 35 years after the 1982 original directed by Ridley Scott. The original film also starred Ford
Pictured to the immediate right of Gosling is Denis Villeneuve, 50, the new film’s director. The film comes on the heels of his last effort, Arrival, which was released in November 2016 and starred Amy Adams. That Oscar-winning film made $100million
The neo-noir, R-rated film presented a dystopian vision of Los Angeles in 2019. Ford played Rick Deckard, a ‘blade runner’ tasked with hunting down and killing – known as ‘retiring’ – replicants, human-like androids that are stronger than actual humans.
In the film, humans are shown as cold and indifferent while replicants are shown as emotional and caring.
Ridley Scott, fresh off the success of his 1979 hit, Alien, made a dark and ambiguous film that the studio worried would not connect with audiences.
Among its more interpretive elements was the unresolved question of whether or not Ford’s character himself was a replicant.
Scott himself told the New York Times in 2007: ‘Yes, he’s a replicant. He was always a replicant.’
But Warner Bros took the film and, in a now-infamous move, tacked a happy ending and multiple expository voiceovers by Ford onto the film in a bid to make it more mainstream.
Critics at the time were divided, leaning towards negative, on the film. It earned raves for its production values but criticism for its story.
In the early 1990s, a film more in line with what Scott had envisioned was released. He later edited a ‘Final Cut’ released in 2007, 25 years after the original.
Pictured is a still of Harrison Ford in the original 1982 film. His character is a ‘blade runner’ named Rick Deckard
Ridley Scott, 79, is an English-born director whose credits in addition to the original Blade Runner include Alien, Gladiator and American Gangster
In total, there are seven different versions of the original film that have been shown to audiences at one point or another.
An analysis by Deadline notes that this muddled history – both in the film’s plot and in its release – could partially explain the weak box office.
Analyst Anthony D’Alessandro writes: ‘The sequel is based off the original’s Byzantine mythology, and the only people who are apt to appreciate Blade Runner 2049 in all its zenith are those who know the first film like the back of their hand.’
The original Blade Runner was released in 1982 and made $83million adjusted for inflation
And audience polling data suggests that the film skewed older and male – perhaps giving credit to the idea that the original film, while beloved, is more of a cult classic that paved the way for later blockbuster films, as opposed to being a blockbuster film itself.
The film’s opening weekend audience was 53% male and over the age of 25. Men and women under the age of 25 comprised a mere 24% of the audience, Deadline notes.
Audiences appeared to like what they saw, though. Polling firm Cinemascore found that opening night audiences gave the film an overall grade of A-.
It is too early to tell whether or not Blade Runner 2049 will have longevity at the box office.
If word-of-mouth ends up being as positive as the critical reviews, it could in theory recoup its budget in North America. The film is also expected to be a major awards contender. Typically, such films display long legs.
If it performs like Gravity, it would end with a smidgen more than $150million. But if it performs more in line with Alien: Covenant, it would limp to a total around $65million.
Worldwide box office results are not yet available, but an analyst told Deadline that early results out of Europe, where it opened in many countries this past week, were less than impressive.
Blade Runner 2049 made $4million from Thursday night previews, which originally led prognosticators to believe it would have a significantly larger opening, based on data from previous similar films.
But the R-rated film ended up being quite front-loaded over the day, with a Friday total of $12.7million including the Thursday night previews.
The film fell by an estimated 11 percent to $11.4million on Saturday and is projected to fall by 35 percent to $7.4million on Sunday.
This figure could go up or down when actual data is released. Because Monday is a holiday in the United States, films are expected to take lighter falls on Sunday than they would on a typical fall weekend.
It opened across 4,058 theaters – the third-largest release for an R-rated film behind only It and Logan, both of which came out this year – for a per-theater average of $7,769.
Blade Runner 2049 carried a widely quoted budget of $150million
Plot details were purposefully kept under wraps for the new film, but the basic plot line follows Ryan Gosling’s character, another blade runner who tracks down Ford’s character from the previous film. The new film also stars Jared Leto, Ana de Armas and Robin Wright.
Critics have raved about the film. It has an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, which indicates that 89% of polled critics gave the film a positive review. It has an 81 on fellow aggregation site Metacritic, indicating that on a scale from 0 to 100, critics gave the film an average score of 81.
The critical consensus from Rotten Tomatoes reads: ‘Visually stunning and narratively satisfying, Blade Runner 2049 deepens and expands its predecessor’s story while standing as an impressive filmmaking achievement in its own right.’
In a five-star review, The Daily Mail’s Brian Viner wrote: ‘It’s a spectacular, virtuoso piece of film-making, and if the narrative isn’t always that easy to follow, well, it’s never less than a lot of fun trying.’
The film was directed by Denis Villeneuve, hot off the success of the 2016 Amy Adams vehicle ‘Arrival’ and the 2015 Benicio Del Toro-starring ‘Sicario’.
The film’s opening, despite its disappointment in comparison with expecations, is a career best for both Villeneuve and Gosling.
Villeneuve’s last effort, Arrival, starred Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner. It won the Academy Award for Sound Editing and was nominated for seven others including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay
Previously, Arrival was Villeneuve’s largest debut. It debuted with $24million in November of last year.
And Gosling’s previous highest debut was Crazy, Stupid, Love., which opened with $19million in July 2011.
Debuting in second this weekend was the Kate Winslet and Idris Elba-starring film, The Mountain Between Us. It debuted with $10.1million.