18 thoughts on “Sci-Fi Flops

  1. I will note first that I haven’t watched any of these.
    Because any video that is captioned with the words “The Real Reason…” doesn’t deserve any attention.
    But, of course, captioning the video “This particular person thinks X about movie Y…” (when I might have given it a chance) isn’t going to cut it, when these days everything has to be hyped beyond absurdity.

  2. _Blade Runner 2049_ a box office flop! Really?

    Worldwide take so far US$154,500,000 not even one month after its launch
    http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=bladerunnersequel.htm

    broadly covers its costs (which IMDB estimate as US $150,000,000)
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1856101/business?ref_=tt_dt_bus

    and it still on the regional cinema circuit plus the DVD has yet to come out, and the screening licences for TV have yet to be sold. The film’s investors should be happy.

    Possibly best not to pander to fake news.

    The question — if there is a question — is why was the US opening weekend disappointing compared to Marvel, Harry Potter, etc franchise films? The answer is simple, the afore are mass market franchises building on established success in other formats (comics, books etc) . _Blade Runner_ is arguably more art house.

  3. Obviously, they flopped because neither David nor I watched them. Sometimes I regret the power that has been thrust upon me.

  4. Rather than flopping Blade Runner did very well in the UK

    I went twice, once in Imax and the second time in standard.

    ETA: haven’t watched the other two, the trailer for Geostorm made it look another CGI overloaded mess. Will probably watch Mother at some point, will need to be in the right sort of mood.

  5. @IanP: Blade Runner 2049 was also hampered in the US by being an R-rated film (meaning no one under 17 without accompanying adults**) with a nearly 3-hour running time (which limits the number of showings). Mother! actually interests me; Geostorm looks mind-numbingly stupid.

    **My wife and I went to see it yesterday for the third time (twice in standard, once in IMAX). There was a couple sitting in front of us with three under-10-year-old children; they left at the start of the sex scene. Which just shows how utterly bizarre Americans are about sex: apparently the parents had no problem with the violence and nudity to that point, but the mere implication of sex (which is all that scene does) was too much.

  6. @PhilRM

    It’s a 15 here, which meant when my brother and sister in law went last week the kids got to go see Ragnarok instead. If they’d said I’d have gone again.

    @Jamoche

    Surprisingly Mark Kermode of the BBC didn’t hate it, but only because he found it funny.

  7. @IanP: A group of my wife’s colleagues (from the National Snow and Ice Data Center) went to see Geostorm, but that was just so they could laugh at how terrible the science is.

  8. PhilRM: There was a couple sitting in front of us with three under-10-year-old children; they left at the start of the sex scene. Which just shows how utterly bizarre Americans are about sex: apparently the parents had no problem with the violence and nudity to that point, but the mere implication of sex (which is all that scene does) was too much.

    The fact that these parents even thought that Blade Runner 2049 would be the sort of movie that three under-10 children would understand and enjoy has me shaking my head at their cluelessness.

  9. @JJ: Yeah, when they came in and sat down during the previews all I could think was, what, Thor: Ragnarok was sold out and you thought this would be a good alternative?

  10. Worldwide take so far US$154,500,000 not even one month after its launch
    http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=bladerunnersequel.htm

    broadly covers its costs (which IMDB estimate as US $150,000,000)
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1856101/business?ref_=tt_dt_bus

    That is definitely a flop for a movie with that budget. The general rule is that in order to be considered successful a major movie has to make back at least twice its budget internationally. And now that Bladerunner also had to have a 50-75 million dollar advertising budget on top of production expenses.

    So, BR44 hasn’t even made back the money that was put in it. Or in other words, a flop.

  11. @PhilRM At a screening of The Fellowship of the Ring, I once sat behind a couple who had brought their four-year-old along. Predictably, the kid lasted until the first Ring-Wraith showed up and then began sobbing in terror. The parents took them out of the cinema, loudly complaining the whole way. Why they thought it was a good idea to bring such a young kid to an M-rated film that LASTS THREE HOURS I do not know.

  12. @Rose Embolism: You’re actually quoting the ‘foreign’ (non-USA) gross for Blade Runner 2049; the worldwide total is currently just shy of $241 million. Which does not make it a hit, but it’s not a disaster, either. I would guess that at the end of the day it will more or less break even.

  13. A Blade Runner film being a big success on release would seem wrong somehow too.

    There were some youngsters in the showing of Deadpool I went to that I thought were a bit too young for it even as a 15 cert.

  14. Bladerunner is up to $240 million. The split is $85 US / $155 World.

    I recall going to Watchmen and there was a family with children in the row ahead of me. The violence didn’t seem to phase the parents, but the Hallelujah sequence may have gotten them to leave.

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