It seems commercial success runs away from "Blade Runner 2049" no matter where it goes, as the box office earnings of the movie in China has also disappointed.
"Blade Runner 2049" is now being considered as a worldwide box office disappointment instead of just a local one. The movie, which was somewhat relying on the Chinese market to recuperate its losses from the US market, has also failed in its big Chinese premiere.
Prior to this, "Blade Runner 2049" was expected to fail anyway, as Forbes reported the sales projection for the movie clocking in only at 55-60 million RMB or $8.3-9 million, and it earned about that during the weekend: $7.35 million. In comparison, "Geostorm," another movie which heavily relied on the Chinese market to recompense its losses, has earned as much as $33 million on its opening weekend in China. The two science fiction (sci-fi) movies were reportedly pitched against each other by Chinese regulators themselves
Much of the failure of "Blade Runner 2049" in China was assumed by Screen Rant to be due to the different taste of the Chinese audience, where the idea of androids becoming human are not as exciting there as it was in the US. In general, it seemed that the Chinese audience did not like cerebral sci-fi movies like "Blade Runner." A similar sci-fi movie, "Arrival" from 2016 also shared the same fate in the Chinese box office. Another factor which may have contributed to the film's failing is the movie's pacing, as well as its running time.
This was unfortunate for the belated sequel as it took $185 million to make, excluding marketing. Even the movie's AAA stellar cast featuring sci-fi veteran Harrison Ford, and Hollywood heartthrob Ryan Gosling could not save the movie.
Still, "Blade Runner 2049" sharing the same fate as its predecessor was expected by director Denise Villeneuve. Like its predecessor, "2049" is also set to become a cult classic, as well as a cultural landmark of the film industry and cyberpunk culture. For the record, "Blade Runner 2049," despite its commercial failure, was actually a critical and audience success, scoring 88 percent critic aggregate score and 81 percent audience aggregate score in Rotten Tomato.
