Like a reversal plot in a science fiction film, the whole of Hollywood is looking forward to "Blade Runner 2049" to bring a small climax to the autumn film market, but what awaits is a hard landing at the box office.
"Blade Runner 2049" was officially released in 4,058 theaters in North America on Friday, and grossed $31.53 million in the three days of the opening weekend, winning the weekend box office with more than three times the runner-up performance.
However, such a painting performance is about one-third lower than the expected value of the film. For the $150 million sequel, the filmmakers expected the film to gross between $45 million and $50 million in its first weekend. The film's early results also indicate that the opening weekend box office is expected to challenge 50 million US dollars, and it is expected to squeeze into the top five of the historical opening results in October, but the final opening results have not even touched the threshold of the top 20 of the October opening list.
This is reminiscent of the high and low score of Blade Runner 35 years ago, and 35 years later, this word-of-mouth sequel seems to repeat its market fate.
On Douban, "Blade Runner 2049" even surpassed "Blade Runner" with a score of 8.4, but can the mainland market become the savior of this box office frustrated annual film?
"The Greatest Sequel Ever"
It is not unreasonable for the filmmakers to expect this sequel to this film history classic to sell well. The first is the carnival-style applause of film critics. Director Dennis Villeneuve and cinematographer Roger Deakins were almost universally admired by critics, and the film has even been called the greatest sequel of all time.
Rating sites are also frequently reported. The film received an "A-" in the theatrical survey "CinemaScore", even higher than the "B+" of "Mad Max: Fury Road"; its popcorn index reached 84%, and the IMDb website scored 8.7 points. Of the 238 media reviews collected on Rotten Tomatoes, 89% of the media gave them positive reviews, an average of 8.2 points; the Metacritic website included 50 authoritative media, giving the film an 82 points, which was slightly lower than the 89 points of "Blade Runner", but it was the same as the first two high-profile works of Wei Dao, "Border Killer" and "Arrival".
"Empire", "The Telegraph", "Complete Movie", "The Guardian", "Collider" and other media outlets have all given praise, "one of the best movies of 2017" and "not inferior to Dunkirk".
The ollider editor-in-chief Steven Winterlaub's comment was the most direct: everyone had to bow to director Dennis Villeneuve. He completed an impossible task, Blade Runner 2049, a home run.
Data from fandango, a movie ticket pre-sale website, also shows that the pre-sale box office of "Blade Runner 2049" in the week before its release has greatly surpassed blockbuster sci-fi films such as "Mad Max: Fury Road" and "Gravity", and the box office of the advance field has even surpassed "The Martian Rescue". According to Fandango member voting, Blade Runner 2049 was selected as the 3rd most anticipated movie this fall, trailing only "Thor 3: Twilight of the Gods" and DC masterpiece "Justice League".
Davis, editorial director of Fandango, said: "The film continues to create a topic of conversation, and we expect to have a great performance at the box office.
But in the end, the home run was still crooked. What the hell is going on? Is the movie not made well? Are so many film critics talking nonsense?
Like a science fiction classic, it failed at the box office
The truth may be the opposite, and the biggest reason is precisely that this sequel is too close to Ridley Scott's original.
The screenplay for Blade Runner is based on the 1968 film by Philip B. Lee. K. Dick's novel Do Bionics Dream of An Electronic Sheep? 》。 Philip Dick is the pioneer of the cyberpunk genre, the so-called cyberpunk, the most classic expression is: high tech, low life. At the foot of towering high-tech buildings are dirty streets, twinkling neon lights coexist with the dark corners of the city, and the elite and the people at the bottom live in two worlds separated by a wall. Ridley Scott's film presents it all perfectly.
The story follows the story of how in November 2019, powerful Terry and other large companies genetically designed to produce an organic robot called Replicants that looked no different from normal adult humans. The special police, known as the Blade Runner, are responsible for hunting down and "retiring" (i.e., ending their lives) to rebel against the ban and return to Earth.
Blade Runner 2049 takes place 30 years after the end of the first film, in 2049, when a new Blade Runner K (Gosling) unearths a long-buried secret that could plunge society into a major crisis. K follows the clues all the way to find former Blade Runner Rick Decker, who has been missing for thirty years — yes, Harrison Ford playing the iconic character in film history.
The market response after the release of "Blade Runner" that year was very dismal, and the film's box office performance of less than $30 million was less than one-tenth of that of "E.T. Alien" released at the same time. Ridley Scott was on the verge of being blacklisted in Hollywood for this non-blockbuster sci-fi film.
But Blade Runner eventually laid the groundwork for the futuristic world in mainstream science fiction films, and had a profound impact on the creation of subsequent dystopian science fiction themes.
The film's personal robots and highly politicized clones are so classic that in 2004, the Guardian surveyed 60 scientists to select the best science fiction films, and Blade Runner took first place.
Until then, almost everyone thought that no one could do a sequel except Ridley Scott himself, the film was too classic, and with the passage of time, it became more and more important in film history. But Dennis Villeneuve, the word-of-mouth director of "Border Killer" and "Arrival", finally lived up to expectations.
At a time when all of Hollywood's high-cost sci-fi blockbusters are pursuing entertainment, the $150 million Blade Runner 2049 continues blade runner's style and reflectiveness. With the help of photography and fine art, which has been well received by the media, the film finally presents a shocking visual power.
According to cinema Blend, a film information website, "Blade Runner 2049 is a phenomenal work, with eye-opening sci-fi elements plus film noir elements deeply rooted in it, plus a tight, tortuous suspense story." Blade Runner 2049 is arguably the best movie of 2017 to date. ”
New Yorker commented: "Although there are repetitive parts, this is not a remnant of Ridley Scott's film. This is a Dennis Villeneuve film that invites us to fall into his world of despair and tension. ”
USA Today argues that Blade Runner 2049 further refines the cyberpunk style of the previous game, with robots and holographic scenes in the film super fashionable and very human.
However, this perfect inheritance of the original theme thinking and stylistic temperament eventually constituted the Achilles heel on the road to the box office of the film.
North American box office analysts generally attribute the film's performance far below expectations to two main points: first, the film's 150-minute long film is not friendly enough for the audience for a serious science fiction film; second, the film's audience composition is 71% male, 86% of the audience is over 25 years old, and the film is less attractive to the two important groups of female audiences and young audiences.
Interestingly, if you look at the box office analysis report of "Blade Runner" that year, it is not difficult to see that Hollywood has given almost the same conclusion to two sci-fi masterpieces and box office failures spanning decades, and the high reputation and low box office are as if it is the fate of this classic series of film history, which is difficult to break.
Lonely Ridley Scott and Dennis Villeneuve, and the savior of the Chinese market
This is not the first sequel to Ridley Scott's sci-fi classic that has hit the box office, before that, Alien Prequel 2: Covenant has suffered a worldwide box office failure, and the planned third prequel is likely to be stillborn.
The box office failure of "Blade Runner 2049" is even worse.
Blade Runner grossed $32.9 million that year, or about $93.4 million if inflation-adjusted.
In 2013, "Gravity" grossed $723.2 million worldwide and won seven Oscars.
In 2015, "Jedi Rescue" grossed $630.1 million worldwide, while Mad Max, launched in the same year, grossed $378.9 million worldwide and won six Oscars.
Hollywood had expected Blade Runner 2049 to replicate these blockbuster sci-fi films, but it backfired.
It is not only the North American market that is frustrated, the film was released in 63 overseas markets in the first weekend, and only recorded $50.2 million, which is not outstanding. At present, the main markets of the film are still large Asian box offices such as China, Japan and South Korea, and the most important mainland market will not be able to see the film until October 27, which is also regarded by the filmmakers as the key battle for whether the film can return to the original.
Although it has never been officially released in the mainland, "Blade Runner" has a divine status in the minds of mainland science fiction fans, and the film is still triggering heated discussions on Zhihu and Douban, and domestic film critics believe that it is not excluded that when the film is released, it will trigger a sentimental upsurge of "returning Ridley Scott a movie ticket".
But even if the film achieves box office success in the mainland market, the overall box office failure is almost ironclad, and such a return on investment is not difficult to explain why high-concept science fiction films are no longer the darlings of the North American box office market.
If "Blade Runner 2049" with a strong IP, a high-star configuration of Harrison Ford and "High Commander", and a high reputation of science fiction can not be a lifesaver in the low tide, then how can other serious science fiction films succeed?
Critics of The Complete Movie argue that this beautifully crafted sequel is enough to rank among the greatest films in film history, and every worker involved in the film has reached the peak of their lives. But it turns out that Dennis Villeneuve and Riesling may not be able to reach the peak of their lives with movies, and audiences see what they want - a good movie that has been polished to perfection, but the cruel market has sentenced more such serious science fiction epics to death.
The story of "Blade Runner" and "Blade Runner 2049" is very simple to say, and it is still the classic life three questions: Who are we, where do we come from, and where do we go? It is difficult to have a definite answer to the question, but the film shows this deep philosophical proposition with a tense and suspenseful detective pursuit story, which sets a sci-fi shell but conveys a different charm.
In a sense, the theme of the film is so perfect that it explains the box office failures of the two greats – human beings are always questioning human nature, but when the film really presents human nature, we are not willing to look at it directly.
In contrast, marvel and DC's superhero movies are more reminiscent of reality's troubles, and this is destined to be an era that makes Dennis Villeneuve feel lonely, just as Blade Runner made Ridley Scott feel lonely 35 years ago. Some movies, more than the box office, time shines more than time.