Re: Denis Villeneuve to direct new Blade Runner film
Blade Runner is one of my top 5 movies, if not #1. This one just got added to the list. Perfection.
That said, I'm not surprised by the box office. Blade Runner is dense, moody, atmospheric sci-fi, not family friendly, and this installment clocks in at nearly 3 hours. I was actually shocked when they were projecting a $100M opening. What they were basing that on I have no idea, because advance sales clearly weren't there, the buzz was not abnormally high, and it was an October opening. Maybe the studio got swept away by the great reviews and the marketing folks figured they would hype it. But $100M? At best I would have figured $50M, which would have been solid and something to build on. But when you project $100M and pull in $31M, you set yourself up. Keep in mind the original was a box office bomb. Folks, including me, discovered it over the years on home video and HBO. And eventually we got the far superior Director's and Final cuts. I also doubt it will pull in big numbers overseas because it's not accessible cinema with universal themes, plot points or action set pieces.
If it had been a terrible movie like Terminator: Genisys or Alien: Covenant or even mediocre like Prometheus, I would be fine with it tanking, because I was one of those early skeptics who thought it was risky bordering on sacrilege to try to make a sequel to Blade Runner. But this movie was flat out brilliant. Hopefully it will at least make its $200M or so back because it would be a real shame to see such a phenomenal piece of movie making get labeled a disappointment. Selfishly, however, I'm just happy 2049 got made. It is the perfect bookend and I cannot wait to own it on digital.
