The numbers are in, revealing that the Borderlands movie’s opening weekend has been a flop, debuting in 4th place behind Twisters.
The Borderlands movie made its silver screen debut just days ago and the reactions have not been good. Based on nearly 100 reviews, the movie currently holds a 9% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That makes it the second worst movie of the year. Based on the audience score of 50%, it’s the third worst movie.
Now, the financial numbers have come in, giving us an idea of just how badly the movie is doing. According to Variety, Borderlands brought in just $8.8 million domestically in its opening weekend. Another $7.7 million came from overseas, bringing the movie’s total global box office an “embarrassing” $16.5 million. In fairness, it did have to contend with some big hitters, including the long tail of Deadpool & Wolverine which took another $54.2 million in its third week.
For comparison, the 2018 Tomb Raider movie adaption managed just over $23 million in its opening weekend, while Mortal Kombat 2021 also did just over $23 million. The 2022 Uncharted movie brought in $44 million.#
The Borderlands movie was made on a budget of $115 million with a further $30 million in marketing. The good news for Borderlands is that 60% of its production costs were covered by international ticket presales, said Lionsgate. That still leaves a lot of money to recoup though, and with such a poor opening weekend there’s a good chance Borderlands is going to struggle to break even, let alone make a profit.
If there’s any silver lining to be found, it’s that Randy Pitchford, the boss of Gearbox, seems to hinted that the next Borderlands will indeed be a mainline entry. During a lengthy series of rants on X where Pitchford ran the gamut of happiness from seeing his games brought to life in a movie to absolutely fury over people disliking it, he dropped this: “So what you’re saying is: You like what my friends and I do with our Borderlands video games even more than you like what some of the biggest and best cast and crew of film makers on the planet have done. I’m super flattered! We’re working extra hard four you on what’s next….”
The usage of the word “four” instead of “for” would seem to be a strong hint that the next Borderlands will be a direct follow-up to Borderlands 3.