Why Blade Runner 2049 Flopped So Hard

7. It's Too Long

One hundred and sixty-three minutes. Two hours and forty-three minutes.

No film should be judged solely on how long it is: if it's good, the length doesn't matter. If it's bad, the length matters just as little. But in marketing terms, that sort of length - in 2017 - for anything that isn't a tentpole, popcorn blockbuster is difficult to get over positively.

Much like the original, 2049 may come into its own when it hits home release, because a 2.75 hour movie out at a multiplex (even with the IMAX experience) is both too costly and too much of an ordeal for the discomfort of most cinemas. That isn't a comment on film-making at all - it's a comment on audience behaviour these days.

For what it's worth, it doesn't feel like a close-to 3 hour film when you're watching it, because there's a lot to look at while you're waiting for the plot to happen, but you try marketing a film that length to the mainstream audiences that needed to see it to make it a box office success... It's just not a selling point at all.