Summary
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick hopes audiences will overlookBorderlands' poor critical reception. The movie was produced partly by Gearbox, the video game company that owns the franchise. Take-Two purchased Gearbox itself, giving it additional insight into the franchise. An adaptation of their video game series, the movie features an all-star cast, including Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Jamie Lee Curtis, and more well-regarded actors. Despite the esteemed cast,manyBorderlandsreviewshave panned the movie adaptation, with a critical score of just 10% on Rotten Tomatoes.
In an interview withIGN, Zelnick still responded with confidence about the property and financial impact despite the negative reviews. He explained that the game company will continue to explore video game movies regardless ofBorderlands' reception, though he still hopes that viewers will see the movie. Check out his quote below:
Let’s give the film a chance. A lot of people worked really hard on it. The underlying intellectual property is phenomenal, the cast is amazing, I thinkthe look and feel is really terrific. So let’s see what audiences have to say. But to answer your question, no, the performance of the film wouldn’t have a financial impact on us or on the franchise one way or another.
The Impact Of Borderlands' Poor Rotten Tomatoes Score Explained
Borderlands' Critical Failure Will Not Hurt The Franchise
The latest video game movie has failed to impress both critics and audiences, as evident by Rotten Tomatoes. Generally, the Tomatometer score is determined by considering the percentage of critics who offer a generally positive review, which means that the average rating can be higher than the Tomatometer score. Unfortunately, Blanchett’s latest movie has anaverage critical score of just 3.3 out of 10, which will hardly encourage positive word-of-mouth. It has also received a dismal D+ CinemaScore rating, which is determined by audience reception.
DespiteBorderlands' high budget of $100 million, it is likely to be considered a financial success by the end of its run.
However, Zelnick is correct that the disappointing reception is unlikely to impact the franchise. Besides having already secured a loyal base of video game players to support the franchise, themovie has already secured its budget from international pre-sales and licensing, according to industry sources. DespiteBorderlands' high budget of $100 million, it is likely to be considered a financial success by the end of its run.
Where To Watch Borderlands: Showtimes & Streaming Status
The Borderlands video games have finally become a movie, and there are options for where to watch the film in theaters or at home on streaming.
Nevertheless,Borderlands' poor reviews and disappointing domestic debut (projected at around $8-10 million) hurt the progress of recent video game adaptations. After video game adaptations long suffered through poorly made movies and series, that notable curse has recently been broken with recent projects likeSonic the HedgehogandThe Last of Us.Borderlandsmay not be enough to raise that debate since it will likely see financial success, but it’s still disappointing to see the outcome of a movie that fails to replicate the game’s material fruitfully.
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.
