Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer has addressed theBorderlandsmovie and its disastrous box office performance, stating what factors likely caused the film to bomb. Based on the video game franchise by Gearbox Software, the movie follows outlaw Lillith (Cate Blanchett), who puts together a team to save Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), daughter of the powerful Deukalian Atlas (Edgar Ramírez). The movie received negative reviews from critics for being generic and not engaging enough in its story and presentation. This was compounded byBorderlands' box office failure, the movie grossing $33 million worldwide against a $110-120 million budget.
Now,The Hollywood Reporterstates that, during a report on the company’s second quarter finances, Lionsgate’s Feltheimer acknowledgedBorderlands' box office bomb. The CEO blamed the lengthy wait to release the movie due to the Covid-19 pandemic and costly reshoots as reasons it underperformed, also highlighting how other projects released by them in the same time frame didn’t perform as well as expected. Check out what Feltheimer had to say below:
[N]early everything that could go wrong did go wrong: it sat on the shelf for too long during the pandemic, and reshoots and rising interest rates took it outside the safety zone of our usual strict financial models. Several of our other releases in the quarter, though cushioned by financial models that worked as intended, didn’t live up to either our standards or our projections.
What Lionsgate’s CEO’s Statement Says About Borderlands' Box Office Failure
Feltheimer went on to state how thecast ofBorderlandsbeing made of recognizable actors and its status as an established IP makes its box office performance an anomaly Lionsgate needs to learn lessons from. The movie likely wasn’t help by the majority of production happening in 2021, with two weeks of reshoots transpiring in 2023. However, the movie’s problems are more prevalent than just reshoot costs and a lengthy wait time. The movie was also PG-13 despite the games' M for Mature rating, and was critiqued for not having as fleshed-out characters as in the source material.
There’s Only One Way Another Borderlands Movie Can Work After 2024’s 10% RT Film
The Borderlands movie was released to a very disappointing reception, but there is still one way another movie could work for the franchise.
The failure ofBorderlandscan also be contrasted with the success of other recent video game movies, such asThe Super Mario Bros. Moviein 2023, which made $1.362 billion worldwide against a $100 million budget. Paramount’supcomingSonic the Hedgehog 3is also highly anticipated, with the previous installment breaking video game movie records at the time of its release. If apotentialBorderlands 2or other video game adaptation comes from Lionsgate in the future, they’ll also need to study successful game movies to figure out how to bolster their performances.
Our Take On Lionsgate Acknowledging Borderlands' Box Office Failure
A Step In The Right Direction For Video Game Movies
Even though Feltheimer didn’t verbalize all the issues that led toBorderlands' box office bomb, it’s still a step in the right direction for video game movies developed under Lionsgate in the future. While a sequel to the film seems unlikely given its reception, future adaptations involving the production company can learn from the mistakes of its failures. With the success of video game movies in recent years likely to lead to more, the company will no doubt utilize these lessons for its future films.
The next major installment in theBorderlandsfranchise is the video gameBorderlands 4, which is set to be released in 2025.
Borderlands
Cast
Based on the video game franchise, Borderlands is a sci-fi action-comedy film that follows Cate Blanchett as Lilith, a treasure hunter who returns to her home planet, Pandora, to find a tycoon’s missing daughter. Together with a group of unlikely allies, such as a soldier, a teenaged demolitions expert, a wise-cracking robot, and an eccentric scientist, the group will work together to save the girl - all while learning to deal with each other’s unyielding quirks.
