Despite a particularlypoor opening domestic weekend at the box office, international sales have helped pushBorderlandspast the$15 million mark at the global box office. This number is split between $8.6 million domestically and $7.7 million internationally, with the film taking a huge30% average drop in ticket salesper day in its opening weekend.Eli Roth’s video game adaptation opened in 3,125 locations nationwide, with a less-than-impressive turnout. However, despite looking like it may struggle to return its reported budget of $120 million, it has been suggested that most of that figure is already covered through international licensing deals.
Sadly, this frustrating opening is unlikely to be helped by poor critical reception, with many citing the movie as lacking any sort of meaningful heart or vision. Although featuring an exciting central cast that boasts the likes ofKevin Hart,Jamie Lee Curtis, andCate Blanchett, the film still fails to deliver. InTaylor Gates' review for Collider, she critiqued the film’s lack of ambition compared to its award-winning source material. Gates said:
“Borderlands is ultimately a fun if flawed and rather unmemorablesummer blockbuster. It’s just disappointing thatthe source material has so much more to offer in terms of its layered characters and complicated themes of trauma and survivalthat the film seems either uninterested in or incapable of tapping into.”
The ‘Borderlands’ Movie Has Been a Long Time Coming
Borderlandshas hada rocky road to release over the course of roughly 13 years. With reports suggesting the movie was first discussed in 2011, many major names have since been attached to the project, including the likes ofLeigh WhannellandAaron Berg. Alas, many of these discussions fell through, with Roth finally attached back in 2020. It would then take a continued painstaking process to get the movie into production, unhelped by the 2020 COVID crisis.
Filming on the project took place in 2021, stunted by the lasting effects of the pandemic, in Budapest, Hungary over the summer. After promotional material was subsequently released, news broke in 2023 thatTim Miller would oversee reshootsdue to Roth’s prior commitments toThanksgiving. Then, finally, after quite the ordeal,Borderlandsopened to an underwhelming first weekend likely affected by the series of events that continuously delayed this adaptation.
Borderlandshas officially surpassed the $15 million mark at the worldwide box office. You can grab tickets to the movie in theaters right now.
Borderlands
A feature film based on the popular video game set on the abandoned fictional planet of Pandora where people search for a mysterious relic.
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