Upon its initial release in theaters, Blade Runner was fairly divisive among critics. In both cases, though, Blade Runner and its followup's problems began before they'd even premiered in theaters.
Much like its predecessor, Blade Runner 2049 had a dream team of talent involved, yet went on to bomb at the box office, killing Alcon's plans for additional sequels and potential spinoffs.
Titled Blade Runner 2049, the movie picked up in real-time after the events of its predecessor, with Ryan Gosling playing a replicant Blade Runner named K and Ford reprising his role as Rick Deckard. Upon acquiring the rights to the property in 2011, Alcon Entertainment thusly decided to move forward with a sequel, with Denis Villeneuve ( then coming off his critically acclaimed dramatic thriller Prisoners) eventually taking over as director from Scott. In the years that followed, however Blade Runner became a cult classic thanks to support from cinephiles and Scott releasing multiple different cuts of the film (some better-received than others). In motion, though, things played out differently and Blade Runner went on to flop commercially. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), the film has the makings of an instant-classic on paper. Combined with revered source material (Philip K. Released in 1982, the first Blade Runner brought director Ridley Scott and actor Harrison Ford together at a time when the pair were hot off the success of three of the most iconic sci-fi films ever ( Alien, Star Wars (1977), and The Empire Strikes Strikes Back).
Both the original Blade Runner and its sequel, Blade Runner 2049, are highly regarded nowadays, yet they both bombed at the box office.