"Borderlands" bombed harder at the box office than any number of grenades you could throw in the games. In an era of good game adaptations, how did it fail so hard?
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00:00Borderlands bombed harder at the box office than any number of grenades you could throw
00:04in the games. In an era of good game adaptations, how did it fail so hard?
00:10Well, destiny awaits.
00:13As of the making of this video, Borderlands has made only $8.8 million in the U.S., landing
00:18a dismal opening, fourth place at the domestic box office. Internationally, it's even worse.
00:24It scooped just $7.7 million overseas for a worldwide total debut of $16.5 million.
00:31This is an absolute disaster for a film that not only took 10-plus years to make and feature
00:35some A-list talent, but had a reported budget of approximately $145 million. A colorful
00:42action-comedy based on a popular IP probably seemed like a slam dunk for Lionsgate, in
00:47the current climate of video game adaptations.
00:51Landing in fourth place at the domestic box office, Borderlands was defeated by both Deadpool
00:55and Wolverine, and, somewhat surprisingly, Lee Isaac Chung's Twisters. Though the legacy
01:00sequel starring Daisy Edgar Jones, Glenn Powell, and Anthony Ramos was a breakout hit when
01:04it first debuted in July, its staying power is nonetheless very impressive, a sign that
01:09audiences are craving blockbusters that don't involve superheroes.
01:12Oh, she's perfect!
01:15She's gorgeous!
01:16So far, Twisters has made over $310 million worldwide and occupies a spot in the top five
01:22highest-grossing films of the year domestically. It's likely the film's distinct tone and PG-13
01:27rating allowed it to maintain an audience, even as the relentlessly marketed and highly
01:32anticipated Deadpool and Wolverine began dominating theaters a week later.
01:36Speaking of the Marvel feature, it would have been unfair to expect Borderlands to outperform
01:41the Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman doubleheader, which has passed the $1 billion benchmark.
01:46But Borderlands not only failed to become the secondary blockbuster to the unstoppable
01:50Deadpool sequel, it made a fraction of what Twisters did, despite the two films having
01:55similar budgets.
01:57In addition to getting trounced by Twisters and Deadpool and Wolverine, Borderlands didn't
02:01even come close to touching It Ends With Us, an adaptation of the Colleen Hoover novel
02:05of the same name that has so far grossed more than $80 million worldwide against a reported
02:10budget of $25 million.
02:12At first glance, the success of Borderlands shouldn't have been impacted by a film seemingly
02:16targeting a very different audience and boasting a far less star-studded cast. However, a film
02:21like Borderlands might have only stood a chance at box office success with a completely clear
02:26runway.
02:27Perhaps Lionsgate felt that enough time would have passed for them to take the wind out
02:30of Twisters. If so, this was a deadly miscalculation that also underestimated the potential of
02:36However, they could and should have anticipated the breadth of the book's fanbase, which seemingly
02:41left almost no theatrical stragglers for Borderlands to entice.
02:46Borderlands needed to have virtually no competition to succeed because, to put it bluntly, it
02:50didn't have the critical buzz it needed to attract viewers. So far, it holds a damning
02:54score of 8% on Rotten Tomatoes, making the film one of the few releases this year to
02:59debut with a percent in the single digits. Among the aggregator site's top critics, 0%
03:05gave the film a fresh rating. On Metacritic, Borderlands holds a more qualitative score
03:09of 27 out of 100, with the site deeming the reviews generally unfavorable.
03:14Feel free to applaud.
03:17Why did Borderlands do so bad in reviews? Many critics found the film to be insulting,
03:21even offensive, in terms of what the filmmakers and producers deemed worthy of the audience's
03:25attention, interest, and money. Writing for The Daily Beast, Nick Shager described Borderlands
03:30as, quote, "...so drearily routine and slapdash that even an A.I. would deem it too plagiaristic."
03:36Some may argue that these critics are reading too much into what is meant to be a fun video
03:40game movie, but general audiences aren't buying into it, and neither are the hardcore fans.
03:45If you're willing to wade into the audience reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, you'll find a
03:49bevy of unfiltered reviews written by franchise fans who are outraged. One reviewer writes,
03:54"...just an empty shell of the actual Borderlands world. Characters portrayed horribly, no humor
03:59since it's a straight-to-DVD product."
04:02Another took to the website to share that they had high hopes going into the film.
04:05"...I played all three games and was looking forward to this movie. Unfortunately, this
04:09movie is just bad."
04:11One thing is clear — even the most dedicated of Borderlands lovers found nothing to like
04:15here. Most fans reviewing the film have the same gripes about the muddled adaptation,
04:20which proved fatal. The Borderlands movie needed to be championed by the game's audience
04:24in order to succeed.
04:27Another tactic used to attract non-gamers to Borderlands was the casting of almost unanimously
04:31high-profile actors. In addition to Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, and Jamie Lee Curtis, Barbie and
04:37Ahsoka breakout Ariana Greenblatt appears as Tiny Tina. Jack Black voices the iconic
04:42robot Claptrap, with whom the Borderlands games are synonymous. However, some fans of
04:46the games were disappointed that producers didn't hire David Eddings or Jim Ferranda,
04:50who voiced the character in the original games. Either one of them could have stepped back
04:54into the role, likely for a fraction of Black's price.
04:57To make matters worse, the film's marketing failed to sell the audience on the cast leading
05:01up to the movie, with anxieties over casting announcements routinely cropping up on social
05:05media. Many fans pointed out that the cast as a whole was significantly older than they
05:10should have been, according to the game, and that Hart specifically seemed unconvincing
05:14as Roland. And on top of miscast actors, there were missing characters. Fans were shocked
05:19that Mordecai and Brick were missing from the movie.
05:22Like Fallout, Borderlands is a decades-old gaming franchise with meticulous lore and
05:27some beloved characters. So why did the Fallout TV series blow everyone away when Borderlands
05:32flopped hard? Fallout knew that non-gamers could be attracted to the unique world and
05:36tone of the games. The makers of the Borderlands movie, meanwhile, played it safe and paid
05:41the price.
05:42One of the most controversial decisions was to make Borderlands a PG-13 film, when the
05:46games feature the sort of profanity and gleefully gory violence that would require an R rating
05:51if adapted faithfully. This was presumably a departure made under the long-held assumption
05:55that PG-13 movies fare better financially, if only for the simple fact that unaccompanied
06:00minors aren't barred from buying tickets. Ironically, it seems that the PG-13 rating
06:05might have actually hurt Borderlands in terms of box office potential.
06:08As the Deadpool franchise has proven time and again, an R rating can help otherwise
06:12middle-of-the-road movies stand out from the crowd. Even Deadpool and Wolverine is rated
06:17the first Marvel Cinematic Universe movie to get this rating. By trying to attract a
06:21wider range of viewers, Borderlands only hindered itself.
06:25From the start of its marketing campaign, it was obvious that Borderlands wanted to
06:29channel the success of blockbuster action comedies like The Suicide Squad, Dungeons
06:33& Dragons, Honor Among Thieves, and Guardians of the Galaxy, the last of which arguably
06:37defined this specific flavor of action comedy for contemporary audiences. These films rely
06:42on an ensemble of colorful antiheroes, with much of the comedy being mined from how inept
06:47they are at their jobs or how badly they misbehave according to normal heroic standards.
06:52Of course, this formula doesn't necessarily guarantee financial success, as Dungeons & Dragons
06:57found out the hard way. It was one of the biggest box office bombs of 2023, despite
07:01actually being a great movie. But if a film attempts to market itself in this fashion
07:05and doesn't deliver, failure is almost sure to follow.
07:09As entertainment consultant David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research said of
07:13Borderlands in a Variety interview,
07:15"...if an action comedy is going to work, it has to be funny, and almost no one thinks
07:19this picture is."
07:20Indeed, the lack of working jokes was brought up numerous times in negative write-ups on
07:24Rotten Tomatoes, both by critics and audience reviewers.
07:28One word that comes up in most reviews for Borderlands is script, usually following words
07:32such as flat and awful. IndieWire described it as brutally bad in its review, but why
07:38was the script so terrible, exactly?
07:40On the surface, it's all down to Eli Roth and someone called either Joe Crombie or Joe
07:45Abercrombie, depending on where you look. Many assumed this was the pen name of Craig
07:49Mazin, the writer-director who helped lead audiences into the golden age of video game
07:53adaptations with The Last of Us, and who was previously attached to Borderlands as a writer.
07:58However, Mazin cryptically but firmly denied his involvement, telling Variety,
08:02"...I did not use a pseudonym. If the name in question is indeed a pseudonym, all I can
08:07say is, it's not mine."
08:09When you look into it further, it seems to be a case of too many chefs spoiling the broth.
08:14The end product appears to be a hodgepodge of ideas from several writers who came and
08:18went during the years the film spent in developmental hell. Aaron Berg and Oren Uziel were both
08:23hired as writers early in development, but weren't around by the time Roth and Mazin
08:26got involved in 2020.
08:28Bullet Train scribe Zach Olkovich was hired during reshoots. Even Euphoria creator Sam
08:34Levinson received an additional literary materials credit, as did Berg, Uziel, Olkovich, Chris
08:39Bremner, Jewel Taylor, and Tony Rettenmayer. That's a lot of writers for one movie.
08:45Another reason that Borderlands failed so miserably is that its director exited the
08:49project before it was fully completed. This isn't entirely Eli Roth's fault, as Borderlands
08:53suffered through setbacks at all stages of production, including post. Roth wrapped filming
08:58all the way back in June 2021, after which his attention began shifting towards his next
09:03project, 2023's Thanksgiving, a slasher flick which wound up being his most lauded directorial
09:08effort to date.
09:09In January 2023, word began to spread that Roth had been fired from Borderlands during
09:14post-production and was being replaced by Deadpool director Tim Miller. In reality,
09:18Roth was merely unable to return for a late set of reshoots scheduled 18 months after
09:23he'd originally wrapped, as he was preparing to shoot Thanksgiving. Even so, the fact remains
09:28that Miller had to effectively finish the movie for Roth while the latter director was
09:31entirely preoccupied with another project.
09:34I want people to go, that is the best time I've had in a movie theater in years.
09:37It's worth noting that Roth wasn't the only one to move beyond Borderlands before reshoots
09:41began. Ariana Greenblatt filmed her breakout role in Barbie during this time, and most
09:46notably, Cate Blanchett shot Tar, the psychological drama film that earned her an Academy Award
09:51nomination.
09:52The fact that the film made it across the finish line after the cast and crew had dispersed
09:55in so many different directions and for so long is a minor miracle, but it didn't help
10:00when it came to box office haul.
10:03As it currently stands, Borderlands will have no impact beyond a bruise on the game's brand
10:07and a place in the ever-growing pile of movies that make the case against video game movies.
10:12Even as shows like Fallout, Halo, The Last of Us, Twisted Metal, Cyberpunk, Edgerunners,
10:17and even, to some extent, Netflix's The Witcher have proven that it is possible to translate
10:22these beloved works to a traditional narrative medium, movies continue to be an issue.
10:27We've arguably yet to see an adult video game film adaptation that is widely considered
10:31to be a success. Borderlands joins the ranks of recent duds like Five Nights at Freddy's,
10:36Uncharted, Mortal Kombat, and Monster Hunter, all of which received harsh reviews when they
10:41debuted. Family features like the Super Mario Bros. movie, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Detective
10:46Pikachu have fared a little better, but on the whole, films like Borderlands hurt the
10:50public perception of video game movies.
10:52If it's possible to see an adult-oriented video game adaptation in the future, Borderlands
10:57certainly didn't make a strong case for the possibility.