Younger people won’t remember it, but in the first decade of the 21st century there were a trend in Hollywood to adapt popular video games to the big screen. A series of productions that have not hesitated to use the name of these powerful brands to create stories that They had little to do with the original material. So, after several years of commercial failures from critics and audiences, these strategies ended up being relegated and gained a rather damaging commercial fame where it was established that the narrative transfer from the world of consoles to celluloid always ended up creating disastrous films. resident Evil, silent Hill, tomb Raider, hitman, Loss…we could cite many other examples, but recently this bad reputation has become quite the opposite, both on the big screen and on streaming platforms. A lucrative trend that, precisely in this year 2024, has found the exception that confirms the norm: the disastrous Borderlands.
With a historic start of 0% positive reviews In Rotten TomatoesIt can’t be said that the result was not expected. Well, from its own pre-production, the video game adapted for the cinema by Lionsgate encountered great difficulties during its development. Since the abandonment of its director Eli Roth due to scheduling issues, including the ever-worrisome coverseven the screenwriter Craig Mazin asking for his name to be removed from the credits. All this with the cherry on top of a budget of $110 million which does not bode well. Living proof that just because you have good sources and a great cast does not mean you will have commercial success in movie theaters today. Borderlands has officially ended its theatrical run and it is, by far, an economic failure. the biggest of the year. But why didn’t this one work and the rest of the contemporary adaptations?
‘Borderlands’ Million Dollar Loss
We should not fall into catastrophism when we talk about the health of the billboard last summer, even if there are of course latent concern about the downward trend of an audience that seems to have lost all interest in going to the theater. The summer exhibition has rather been a constant of gray. There is the disaster of Universal Pictures with The specialist or the burial of the Mad Max franchise for Warner due to the poor performance of Furious. It was quite the opposite that happened. Upside Down 2 And Deadpool and WolverineThe first became the highest-grossing film in the history of animation and the second broke the record for joker as the highest-grossing R-rated film. But among all the negative ratings, Borderlands takes the cake when it comes to economic losses.
Neither the presence of Cate Blanchettand do not have in the casting such well-known profiles as Kevin Hart either Jamie Lee Curtis were enough to avoid the debacle of the first adaptation of the title of Gearbox software. However, it must be emphasized how complex it was to bring an artistic style to the cinematographic disc. such radical and strange humor like deliveries of Borderlandsalthough if they knew, Lionsgate would surely have changed their mind. before investing so much capital.
According to their data on the website The numbersStudio’s losses hit $115 million after only raising 32 million at the global box office. So much so that the major He decided to remove it from the rooms and rent it out to try to minimize the damage, but even with these he couldn’t get anywhere near his goals.
A Terrible Year for Lionsgate
As if this were not a considerable economic hole for the company, Lionsgate is joined by other failures on the bill such as the remake of The Raven. The film starring Bill Skarsgard He received a paltry $21.10 million and, to make matters worse, the production company has yet to distribute Megalopolis on the North American continent. Which should be a total disaster.
“Borderlands”: synopsis and release date
The official summary from Borderlands in the following text: “Lillith, a famous treasure hunter with a mysterious past, returns to her home planet to find the kidnapped daughter of a powerful gangster. To do so, form an alliance with several members with different abilities. These strange heroes must fight monsters, aliens and dangerous bandits to find and protect the missing girl, who could be the key to unlocking an unimaginable power.
For now, Borderlands It is only available for rental or purchase in Prime Video, Apple TV and Google.
