To the surprise of absolutely no one, Lionsgate’s Borderlands live-action movie has just completed its theatrical run, and the results are dismal. Based on the records by film industry data website The Numbers, the movie drew a global box office of around US$31 million, a mere quarter of its production costs.
According to Variety, the film had a total production budget of around US$115 million, not including the US$30 million in promotion and distribution costs. With these estimates, it seems Borderlands heavily missed the mark financially, earning just enough to cover its marketing costs. Apparently even having big Hollywood names among its cast like Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Jamie Lee Curtis couldn’t entice enough people to go and watch it.
But how bad are these numbers? Pretty terrible, when compared to recent movies based on video game franchises. Last year’s Five Nights at Freddy’s grossed a theatrical box office of US$297 million and 2022’s Uncharted grossed US$400 million. Even 2021’s low-budget Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City managed to almost double its production costs with a box office of US$42 million.
Alas, the Borderlands movie was destined to fail from the beginning. Critic reviews were harsh, to put it lightly, with reviews on Rotten Tomatoes averaging an abysmal 10%, and publications such as The Rolling Stone calling it “an insult to gamers, movie lovers, and carbon-based life forms.” The film also suffered a rather disastrous launch weekend, earning only US$8.8 million at the U.S. box office.
The journey for Borderlands is not over yet, however. There is still a chance that it can earn back at least a portion of its budget due to its release on home streaming services such as Amazon Prime and Apple TV, but only time will tell whether the film remains a lost cause.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
Si Jia
Trinity Sun
