Why Blade Runner 2049 Flopped So Hard

5. It Cost Way Too Much

Had Blade Runner 2049 cost the same as the original did, it wouldn't be a financial disaster if it pulled in less than £100m, but the minute you start making $150-180m budgeted movies (with about the same dropped on marketing budgets), you need to pull in Star Wars money to be considered a success. Or at least half-Star Wars money.

In the context of Blade Runner, that amount of money is even more insane. Blade Runner made $30m at the box office. THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS. Why the hell anyone sanctioned the same budget as Transformers: Age Of Extinction (give or take) for a belated sequel to that movie is a mystery bigger than any of the plot holes in 2049.

It was doomed from the start, because that sort of budget suggests certain things, and the marketing definitely didn't seem to suggest it was going to deliver them. As well as the studio needing to make Star Wars money because of their budget, they also needed to make a Star Wars movie to justify it. And now, because they may fail rather spectacularly to make the budget back, it's going to look like an even worse failure.