Borderlands movie bombs after disastrous opening weekend

It's a disaster.

The cast of characters in Borderland peering down a manhole.
Stick around. Image via Lionsgate

Borderlands was released in cinemas worldwide last weekend, and in addition to being blasted with negative reviews, its opening weekend was a massive flop financially.

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The latest Eli Roth picture opened in 3,125 theaters on Aug. 9 but amassed only $8,800,000 over its opening weekend, according to Box Office Mojo. The Borderlands movie made the most on its release day, boasting four million dollars worldwide, with the remaining two days earning just over two million each.

With that in mind, Borderlands could quickly prove to be a financial disaster for Lionsgate Films. The movie reportedly had a $115 million budget, according to Variety, with the majority of this budget likely spent hiring the film’s impressive cast list, which included Jamie Lee Curtis, Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, and Jack Black. Turns out, though, that having a Hollywood cast isn’t enough to make your money back.

The cast in Borderlands stood side-by-side.
Renowned cast, daunting movie. Image via Lionsgate

The horrible financial results likely aren’t an accident, given Borderlands received such awful reviews. Initially, critics called it a “visually repulsive dud”—and the reviews that flooded in over the weekend weren’t much better. At the time of writing, Roth’s production has a nine percent Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes and a 50 percent Audience Score.

On the bright side, Borderlands 3 received a massive update following the movie’s release. Usually, following the release of a video game film or TV show, the player numbers increase for the game series it’s based on (as we saw with Fallout). In the last 30 days, Borderlands 3 recorded peak players of 12,288, twice the peak of July and June, according to Steam Charts.

Author
Image of Mateusz Miter
Mateusz Miter
Freelance Writer at Dot Esports. Mateusz previously worked for numerous outlets and gaming-adjacent companies, including ESL. League of Legends or CS:GO? He loves them both. In fact, he wonders which game he loves more every day. He wanted to go pro years ago, but somewhere along the way decided journalism was the more sensible option—and he was right.