#BOXOFFICE: “BLADE RUNNER 2049” MAKES LUKEWARM DEBUT AT #1

Despite high hopes, BLADE RUNNER 2049 musters a $32 million opening for Warner Bros. from 4,058 theatres.  Made for $150 million, this Sci-Fi Blockbuster starring Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling came with much mystery and restrictions to Media who were given specific criteria they could and could not divulge in reviews about the Film. The latest effort from Canadian visionary Denis Villeneuve still gets an 89% on the Tomatometer and a solid A- CinemaScore.  At one point, projections pegged it to open in the neighbourhood of $50 million. What went wrong, we wonder?

MY LITTLE PONY: THE MOVIE opens in second with $10.4 million for eOne Films/Lionsgate Films from 2,528 theatres. Earning 57% on the Tomatometer from Critics, the Film gets a much better A- CinemaScore from Audiences.

Opening in third is TIFF ’17 selection THE MOUNTAIN BETWEEN US starring Kate Winslet and Idris Elba. The Disaster-Romance opens with $10 million for 20th Century Fox from 3,088 theatres.  It gets 46% from Critics on the Tomatometer but an A- CinemaScore.

IT slips to fourth with $9.2 million for Warner Bros. in its fifth week out. In its domestic run to date, it has grossed an outstanding $304 million already.

VICTORIA & ABDUL, another TIFF ’17 selection, climbs to eighth spot with $4 million for Universal Pictures/Focus Features, expanding to 732 theatres in its third week out.  There is lots of Oscar buzz for Dame Judi Dench‘s reprisal of Queen Victoria here.

BATTLE OF THE SEXES, which also premiered at TIFF ’17 in September, rounds-out the Top Ten, expanding to 1,822 theatres for Fox Searchlight, making $2.4 million this weekend, a total $7.7 million over three weeks. Emma Stone also is garnering a lot of Oscars buzz too for her portrayal of Tennis icon Billie Jean King.