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For a man who just directed a $155-million flop, Denis Villeneuve was remarkably calm.

On the phone from Los Angeles last week, the Quebec director was philosophical about the highs and lows of his latest film, Blade Runner 2049.

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Villeneuve has been hailed as an artistic genius in response to his nearly three-hour epic, which expands on the iconic vision of Ridley Scott’s 1982 original, a dystopian reverie starring Harrison Ford as a state-sanctioned hunter of android “replicants.”

Blade Runner 2049 — which features Ryan Gosling, Ford, Ana de Armas, Robin Wright and Sylvia Hoeks — is all but guaranteed a spot near the top of any self-respecting film critic’s year-end top 10, but has fallen well short of expectations at the box office.

It’s on course to pull in about $250 million. After marketing and other expenses, that will leave producers Alcon with a debt in the neighbourhood of $80 million, according to the Hollywood Reporter — light-years away from the expected earnings for what was touted as one of the year’s most anticipated movies. (Sony will make back its $110-million investment, in accordance with the deal it negotiated to be reimbursed first in exchange for a lower percentage of any profits.)