Why Blade Runner 2049 Flopped So Hard

2. You Won't See It Again

Films can obviously be great and still be classified as definitve one-time-only deals. Dunkirk was a majestorial achievement in technical film-making, but it was so much of an ordeal that it's hard to imagine the same size audience would flock to see it again. And Blade Runner is very much the same, which kills the chance for an improved box office through repeat ticket-buys.

There could be an argument to suggest that there's so much lush detail in the film that it demands rewatching, but that would only be the case if every shot wasn't lingering and there was some sort of complex plot to distract from it. That absolutely wasn't the case, and the fact is that we spent 163 minutes wandering slowly around Denis Villeneuve's imagination (infused heavily with his Ridley Scott fetishism) with ample time to drink it in.

And there's just not a compelling enough reason to do that again when you'd get the same experience pouring over a coffee table book of the film's artwork.

In story terms, it's not satisfying, there are no stand-out performances, no really stunning revelations and no pay-off to the near endless first act-style, slow-burn building that might have made it an essential repeat viewing. And when you consider that audiences for The Force Awakens were reported to be seeing it "three or four times", that's a potentially sizeable chunk of box office gone right there.