In reply to tspoon1981:
> I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the trio of shorts, black out 2022, 2036: Nexus Dawn and 2048: Nowhere to run. All well worth a look if you fancy a nerd out.
They were mentioned in a different thread early last week
> I went to see it last night, sixth of the tenth for full nerd points. I was surprised how empty the cinema was to be honest. Brilliant film though
Frankly I was surprised at how FULL the cinema was! The box office analysis tallies with my expectations for this film. Regardless of its actual merits as a piece of cinematic art, it is doomed to "not make much money" - there is a lot stacked against it.
Most cinemagoers are "young". Most people who love Bladerunner to the extent that it is infused into them, are in their 40s, and this is not a big demographic for cinema. It's not like it is part of a franchise that "young" people have grown up with (see: Harry Potter / Fantastic Beasts; Transformers; The Fast and the Furious; even to some extent Aliens).
The film is nearly 3 hours long which a) limits its screenings and b) deters people. The stars, whilst big names, are not actually guaranteed box office draws. The marketing doesn't give much away and doesn't make it look like an entertaining night out.
I think that like the original, it will count as a box office flop (even if it eventually claws its way to profit) which raises the question of whether they will make another. Of course, if it wins four Oscars next year that MIGHT change things. Mad Max: Fury Road is a good comparison - that one was a return to a franchise rather than a sequel to a single film, but the gap of thirty years is comparable. It was made with passion, involving the original creators, BUT a lot of audiences complained that not much really happens in the film - clearly they were unfamiliar with the first three films in which actually not much happens and that despite some nifty action sequences, Max himself is kind of a passive story element rather than an active protagonist. Fury Road did win SIX(!) Oscars but I don't know if it made enough money for the franchise to be guaranteed another $150 million budget for a sequel
I think that audiences who aren't "fluent" in Bladerunner (1982) are already moaning that Bladerunner 2049 is "a bit slow"....
Post edited at 20:47