"Blade Runner 2049" was the best performing movie in its opening weekend but the sum it pulled in, approximately $31.5 million, fell below the expected $45–$55 million pundits had projected. The original "Blade Runner" was a cult favorite and perhaps that is one of the major reasons it did poorly. Besides an iconic line, younger generations can’t relate to the farfetched albeit interesting future portrayed in the original. The total budget for the movie was $150 million which includes both production and marketing. This was all confirmed in a report by Business Insider.

A bad weekend at the box office

The major Movie Theaters all suffered a precipitous drop Monday when the box office dust settled. AMC Entertainment suffered the worst of it as Regal and Cinemark’s stocks fell to prices they had at the beginning of last week for a change of +0.19 percent and −0.14 percent respectively. However, AMC Entertainment fell a whopping 5.1 percent to close at $14.00 even at Monday’s end.

Over the past year, AMC Entertainment has dropped 56.81 percent from a share price of $31.75 to its current $14.00. That may explain why AMC has invested $20 million in Dreamscape Immersive, a VR startup with backing from Warner Bros., Fox, MGM and other big Hollywood names. They may be looking for salvation in a world that is increasingly staying at home and streaming.

Not everything has been grim

Stephen King’s "It" devoured the box office on its opening weekend and breathed all kinds of life into an otherwise lame 2017 at the theaters by breaking a series of records, most notably the record for the largest opening weekend for a horror film of any MPAA rating.

There were similarities between "It" and "Blade Runner 2049" like the long runtime (2+ hours), the rating, a fall release, but there was also a major difference: "It" was a remake and "Blade Runner 2049" was a sequel made for fans of the original.

It’s unclear how movie theaters plan on addressing the downward trend of 2017 in the coming year. A part of it has to do with Hollywood creating unimpressive movies like we saw during the summer but the other part no doubt has to do with a changing society.

According to a survey by Deloitte, a staggering 90 percent of US Millennials binge-watch shows and movies and 38 percent do it every week.

Another nail in the coffin for movie theaters is that 99 percent of Millennials and Generation Zers multitask (text, surf the web, interact on social media sites, etc.) while binge-watching so it's unlikely they'll inconvenience themselves by going to a theater and pay to give up what they most enjoy.
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