Why Borderlands Bombed At The Box Office

[@Looper]

What do you think is the biggest issue with "Borderlands"?

[@fightindice6227]

It is obvious that no one who worked in this show gave a damn about Borderlands. That is including Randy Pitchford, the dude who runs Gearbox. He sold out years ago and this Hollywood tripe is just more evidence of that fact.

[@bryonyamada2620]

A M rated game turned PG13 for movies. Biggest mistake. Fan base saw that and said NOPE!

[@sosadagod6963]

When AI writes a script, thats what this is

[@DarkZerol]

I am a very firm believer that not every piece of media or literature are inherently an ideal transition from one form to another. This is especially true if one is trying to do a faithful enough adaptation from video game to a movie or TV show because video games are inherently an interactive medium and without the writer, director and production team taking tons of creative liberties, it's simply impossible to do a 1:1 movie or TV show adaptation to a video game. Currently the most successful video game to movie blockbuster franchise in terms of mass reception and profitability is Capcom's Resident Evil specifically the movie adaptations from Paul W. S. Anderson.

[@user-et8js8qc8y]

the rebuclican party pf the usa

[@doomedwaffles3358]

It’s not a sign that we are craving movies without heroes….. we are craving movies with good writing and acting…. Which Deadpool and wolverine did… which also proves you wrong.

[@into_play3226]

Deadpool and Wolverine had good writing? Lol

[@fubytv731]

I hate heroes

[@beefjerky6996]

@@into_play3226it was funny and entertaining so I think so.

[@ericbryan3854]

​@@into_play3226Yeah, kinda why it did really well dude.

[@jddiablohell6813]

i saw it too borderlands and i liked it maybe not how the gamer wanted it but it is there i liked it and you should first watch it then talk about it done

[@LimaFX]

I'll save you 11 minutes...casting...bye

[@IncognitoSprax]

Actually it's the marketing. The trailer show they had no idea what audience they were making the movie for

[@shadowsnake3867]

I blame Kevin Hart he tries to be funny all the time which he can be but not always

[@JamieRawles]

@@IncognitoSprax casting ruined everything, no amount of marketing could have saved it.

[@IncognitoSprax]

@@JamieRawles Wrong

[@rithy8522]

I agree it's the casting.

[@EddieShotCaller21]

Borderlands SHOULD have been Rated R.

[@blessedarethepeacemakers.1457]

I mean, could’ve been 16 A if it didn’t had cussing

[@katra777]

Bad script, terrible casting, and no relation to game. It's a throwback to video game movies from the 2000s.

[@robertmccabe1919]

Resident Evil was a dope movie cmon

[@yestertechnet]

who was that guy... Ewe Boll?

[@ParkSo-Hee-n9i]

​@@robertmccabe1919it was but it had nothing to do with the games the only thing similar was few names and nemesis and the doberman zombies and Racoon city

[@patrickbernier5495]

Once i saw kevin heart was in the trailer i predicted the movie would turn out bad. He's not very funny or entertaining.

[@benyoung4305]

This comment, this comment!

[@moremartinthanmartin]

Wouldve had better luck when he was at his peak like 10 years ago. We're all kind of meh about him these days.

[@Svol09]

And he's black. They should stop giving people roles just to have diversity, viewers don't give a sht about diversity

[@ICallItAsItIs]

...and he's too damn short to play Roland.

[@patrickbernier5495]

HA, i was expecting alot of hate but i was on the money. I've watched my friends play boarderlands but i never have personally soo i wouldnt read too heavily into character accuracy. I was too busy playing fallout. Did they say this movie was 10 years in the making... it got the duke nukem forever treatment

[@codyeasonBGR]

Casting was the first public sign that the people handling this project did not know about making movies.

[@Clownin_Around213]

I was out as soon as I heard Kevin Hart was Roland. Terrible choice.

[@connieellerbe-maycock7115]

It was. Roland is built like a Linebacker in the games.

[@Tyrantofthewind]

You could go down the list of things that make Roland distinctive and Kevin Hart would embody the opposite.

[@gofasturnleft01]

They should have got someone like Shemar Moore, he plays Hondo on SWAT and was in Criminal Minds.

[@Clownin_Around213]

@@gofasturnleft01 I was thinking Winston Duke or Idris Elba. But Shemar would work too!

[@ixanongamer9508]

And Jack black as Claptrap. This was a Golden opportunity to bring back the original character from the game.

[@topentine]

Kevin Hart's and Dwayne Johnson's movies have been bombing lately. Maybe it's high time investors look for other actors.

[@Spacecrust]

Box office $16.5m Worldwide in the shadow of a $145m budget....should have made a show instead...

[@theEdgeCrusher12]

I agree. Borderlands would've benefited more with a lesser-known cast and an 8-10 episode runtime in a streaming service like Netflix or Prime. The budget would significantly go down, plus the story could've been better fleshed out. Also the marketing on this one wasn't as good as D&W. I mean, I didn't know about it until a week before the film came out.

[@josephnjuguna1986]

Agree

[@Fourthaboveall]

When making a adaptation of a fan favorite franchise. Make it for that fanbase not everyone just to fill seats. Deadpool keeps showing Hollywood the blueprint and they keep ignoring it.

[@LORDAKIRA818]

Chose the worst actor possible for Roland, the complete opposite and they bring on an enemy level 2 npc to carry the weight of that role!? Cause Roland’s hiding behind people runnin 🤦 look how they did my boy 😢

[@kencube86]

The casting is uncanny. It's the parallel universe nobody like.

[@VideoHeadMan]

Five nights at Freddy’s made almost $300 million on a $20 million budget and Uncharted made over $400 million on a $120 million budget. So…. Not duds.

[@GothPaoki]

I always wondered how Kevin hart was so famous and got so many roles. He was always painfully unfunny in his movies. Wearing dresses all the time does not qualify as humour btw. Then i heard katt Williams and it all made sense.

[@Tyrantofthewind]

You know when players of the game pictured Roland in live action, a character who is tall, athletic, stoic, and a good leader with a dry sense of humor, I'm pretty sure they didn't think someone could possibly think Kevin Hart was a good choice for the role... Since he is pretty much the complete opposite of the character in just about every distinctive attribute.

[@fnvfan0145]

idk about craving non-superhero movies, but there's still a market for them Gotta admit that straight to DVD comment was savage

[@rcinematic]

Eli Roth, Miscasting, PG13, Script, the reasons this bombed. I hope it doesn’t affect the future of the games though. I have a feeling Yazuka will be the next video game adaptation flop, since they’re going to tell their own story instead of the game. TLoUs season 2 will be hated for obvious reason too, can’t wait. And I wonder if they’ll even attempt to make a live action GTA movie one day. That’s gonna be a challenge

[@gideanet]

I dont have to watch the movie to know the director is crap. The trailer was rubbish. Cate Blanchett is too good for this waste of space, they better have paid her well

[@DarkPhoenixSaga]

The Witcher was a video game but it was based on a book series.

[@mikerohlfs2836]

Studios just grab whatever I.P. they can ,and squrt out a flop like this, God can you imagine if Disney made this ,fans would be squeezing their bags of Doritos.

[@Kamunchu]

Randy Pitchford deserves it.

[@iamagamer_007]

It needed to be R rated. All the swearing, immature jokes, and violence should have been in it. It needed to be aimed towards the M rating that the games are.

[@hunter4779]

The casting screamed that the studio had no clue what they were doing. Why the fuck would you take Tannis a 30 year old NPC and turn her into a 65 year old woman and make her part of the team? Lilith is what 50? Tiny Tina stayed her age but magically became Mexican. Then they pic a tiny comedian to play a straight laced military guy like Roland? If casting is this bad then they clearly didn't care about the script. After I saw the first trailer I remember texting my buddy I played all the borderlands games with that this might be the worst movie of the last decade. Glad to here it lived up to my hype. Studio's are the most disconnected stupid people in the world. lets leave out the bad ass brute and lets add the side character but lets make her super old for an adventure like this.

[@bathsaltshero]

1. PG-13 2. Casting director does meth (probably) 3. It's secretly an Uwe Boll movie

[@HippiePirates]

I haven’t been to a theater since before the lockdowns and didn’t know about this movie until videos like this started showing up. I played Borderlands 2 a lot with my kids but that had to be over a decade ago 🤔

[@couldnotic]

These would've been better casting choices: Roland: Winston Duke (M'baku Black Panther), John Boyega, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Black Manta from Aquaman) Lilith: Emma Stone, Karen Gillian, Elizabeth Olson If they were in the movie: Mordicai: Oscar Issac, Pedro Pascel, Taylor Lautner Brick: Dave Batista, Jason Mamoa, WWE Bobby Lashley, WWE & UFC fighter Brock Lesner. I think for Krieg, i would go for like the most physic looking type person for the role and I think WWE Star Drew McIntyre definitely has the look for Krieg. I think WWE Star Randy Orton was another too.

[@srviver104]

Blame the director. He approved casting etc. Look at the review averages of his past films. Plus he wasn’t involved in the reshoots for a reason !

[@ronorleans]

Silver-lining movies will hopefully go R with property meant to be. Neglectful/Cool parents will bring their kids a second time to experience an R-Rated movie if they think it's worth a watch. Alot of anime on TV is violent, but because it's colorful with no blood it's cool. Go for the gore with a good story, and people of all ages will see and love it eventually.

[@peartreeproductions1993]

Cause it's crap.

[@seegee1012]

10:13 I’m sorry, did you say halo? The show that was so dogshit that it was cancelled after 2 seasons?

[@Salfordian]

And shown the Master Chief which ruined the mystery behind the helmet

[@liossgranda8414]

They should show us a variation of weapon and reload mechanic on every manufactured gun of borderland. Shooting this movie and give some of times on 1st person camera would make it better on gun battles would make it better.

[@markthomas6236]

I love what you do

[@Wongatello]

Casting had most of us in the fan base in doubts as soon as it was announced. Not being rated 'R' was the final nail.

[@TheTopStarz]

This is a DAMN SHAME, how did they mess this up, thought it would be an easy slam-dunk, especially with a good cast, was really looking forward to it

[@KiLLaBushWooKiE]

Why can they basically never do good quality films from video game franchises, annoys hardcore gamers, terrible script stories and miscasted most the time.

[@ICallItAsItIs]

Most of the time that's the case, but if you haven't checked it out yet, Fallout on Amazon is actually very good and true to the game.

[@IncognitoSprax]

It's probably because they made as kids/teens pg13 movie. I saw the trailer when I went to go see Deadpool ams the first thing I asked my bro is, "Who is this movie for?" The first Borderlands came out in 2009. Those of us that played it as teens are all adults now, I'm 32, yet it was marketed like a family Jumanji movie?! Adults like myself aren't going to want to see it, and teenagers can't really relate to it besides Borderlands 3 I guess so it has no audience. I predicted it was going to bomb at that moment.

[@ThePatriceProject]

We didn’t even know it came out 🤦🏾‍♀️🤷🏾‍♀️ And my man is a fan of Borderlands. He told me about the game. ☺️

[@RichardJones-et5we]

Kevin Hart for a start doesn't help 😂

[@10191927]

I had ZERO idea the long delayed Borderlands movie was coming out until I saw an ad on KZbin, I thought the project was dead. I hadn’t heard anything about it for so long. Needless to say grossing $16M against a $145M budget after a 10 year development Hell cycle also proves in a way that maybe pursuing video game movies is a bad idea after all.

[@georgerohrberg4279]

I haven't seen a single TV ad on this movie I didn't even know it was released.

[@mikerohlfs2836]

I think one of the biggest blunders was marketing, i had no idea this movie was being made let alone in theaters until I starting seing reviews.

[@PhoenixTubez]

Wasn't a bad film at all . Just shouldn't have cast Kevin heart 1 and 2 no blood / gore

[@cadillacdeville5828]

Turning a video game into a movie it's not for the faint of heart..... It's not relatively easy....... However a lot of times they don't stay close to the source material or miss the point.

[@aledproductions3492]

What's weird is I didn't even know there was a Borderlands movie until a day before release lol. I personally did not see any marketing online

[@mikerohlfs2836]

It is blowing my mind how the backlash of these movies are so earth shattering , important.. .why? Shouldnt we be spending our time, and effort analyzing important stuff, if these people put half as much energy being positive, im sure this world would be a better place.

[@Gamer-ade]

As a 30something year old gamer...Ive never even played Boderlands... And even more so Ive never said you know what franchise screams movie?: Borderlands.

[@kiwilegamer28]

If borderlands were to succeed in the box office, it would have needed to be written by a true and loyal fan to the franchise. Someone who has listened to every echo-log. Played every game 10 times over. And read the forgotten comics. And Scooter. But no fan (unless they just are innately rich) can afford to do something like that. Then somehow after all that. You'd have to find, a Lilith without crows feet, a Tannis that isn't decrepit (I like Jamie lee. Nothing against her), and a Roland whose the same height as Lilith. You technically don't need claptrap but he is essentially (claptrap always annoyed me. I'm not a minion) and instead you can use baylex if you really wanted to screw with the timeline like this movie has. Let's see anything else? Maybe if we make a list then it can be redone correctly.

[@reggiefurlow1]

Dungeons and dragons was excellent!

[@Diazo--Diamante]

They should have cast people WHO ACTULLY LOOK/ARE THE AGE OF/LIKE THE CHARACTERS! Would have been an improvement anyhow.

[@kculp93]

Having played every game religiously I don't get why they didn't make then a dysfunctional team, why they excluded characters, why they didn't have loot drops that everyone fought over or them going down and needing a revive. These things would've helped a bit but still wouldn't have fixed the script. Oh and it should've been an R rating.

[@Arcademan09]

To be fair, the idiots behind the DnD marketing kinda screwed it over because they bragged the movie was going to "demasculine(?)" one of the main characters? Which wasn't at all what the movie did and it's a shame because it really is a great movie, however one other major problem was Hasbro itself mismanaging the DnD brand, they even sold off the studio responsible for the movie *BEFORE* it released. It probably doesn't help that DnD isn't the juggernaut franchise it thinks it is. Its definitely popular for board games but getting a spotlight in Stranger Things doesn't mean success, people definitely know the name but actually *knowing* what the game actually is, is a different story compared to something like Super Mario

[@austinkruse7610]

Crazy how bad it was…..

[@samisme123]

Maybe if I had seen a single ad for this movie I would’ve watched it

[@BagtheTea99]

Force a smaller budget like Deadpool 1 so they can FIGURE IT OUT.

[@koslisted9458]

I think that's Eli Roth's first FLOP too. All the rest of his movies made a profit.

[@RQUKOfficial]

It's not even "so bad, it's good" - What a waste!

[@artlife9563]

I didn't even know it was in theaters.

[@paulcarson7752]

That movie was in post-production for 3 years?? Nobody should ask why it underperformed in the theater.

[@exquizit_d]

I didn’t even know this movie existed, until I saw some KZbin videos of some of the cast being interviewed.

[@patientzero291]

I'll watch this at any streaming service rather than spending $50 for a couple of tickets and snacks.

[@codywise549]

Lets make a game adaptation of a bunch of characters that are in their 20s maybe 30s but cast actors that are 60+. Wonder what went wrong there

[@jahwoo6292]

Hey at least she didn't blame "toxic fans" like everybody else when they fail....

[@AzureRook]

Video game movies just need to be animated, and they can still use actors for motion performances like Resident Evil: Death Island

[@craigcraigster5605]

I didn't see it advertised once on tv or online. I didn't even know the movie was coming out.....I can only assume they knew the movie was a stinker.

[@alecubudulecu]

The problem with their pg13 tactic -- folks under 18 don’t know what TF borderlands is nor care.

[@deathminder9206]

Biggest mistake was Cate Blanchette. Lilith is 22 years old in Borderlands and you cast someone the age of Blanchette who is 55. I actually thought she was older lol until I looked it up. Once I saw that i had zero intention of seeing this movie. Was it made by Sony?

[@f1nsher]

Jamie Lee Curtis is an really great actress and deserved her succes also Cate Blanchett but they where totally misscast for this franchise because the Age and look just not fit into their role. Imagine playeing and loving the games since the very first release and then you get this in a movie adaptation.... This movie was doomed right after they announced the cast because thats one big point the fans not liking about the movie itself

[@byssmal]

Viewers who have never played borderlands video game will probably like this movie

[@andrelockridge9109]

Hollywood is just churning out flop after flop!! That's why cinemas are struggling lack of quality movies!!

[@Ozarkveteran]

How about we want just a good movie. Not some 💩 that checks Hollywood’s boxes, and delivers “the message”. What about just making movies that the fans wanna see? When did that not become a thing?

[@KadeemG61]

here’s my take on the movie. Was it the worst movie of 2024? Yes, worse than Madame Web. Was it the worst video game movie ever? yes, worse than Mortal Kombat: Annihilation or Double Dragon. But I’m not going to bash the film too hard, but I think the movie is unfinished. I think the entire cast was miscast (though that’s not a bad thing). If I were Eli Roth (very good director), he knew that the studio interference hampered the movie. Like why releasing Borderlands in the middle of a dead month of August in the middle of Deadpool and Wolverine slammed dunked to a tune of $1 Billion, an historic feat that not only is the highest-grossing film in all of the Fox X-Men movies altogether, but the only MCU movie in 2024 to grab that feat and the first MCU billion dollar movie in 5 years since Captain Marvel (which was released two months after Endgame). My other big issue for Borderlands is the PG-13 rating. Borderlands is not a kids movie. Borderlands the franchise has been rated Mature by the ESRB. Why cut the R-rating if your said film is less over-the-top and less blood? I’m surprised they didn’t even add any F-bombs there. If you’re a fan of bad movie night on Fridays, then wait for the film to be on streaming. I think it should go near the so-bad-its-good territory like Manos and Plan 9 From Outer Space.

[@StellaSable4891]

Bombed doesnt explain. Start calling bomb = borderlanded.

[@GeraldBradshaw-j2t]

I think Kevin Hart might be partly to blame? He generally plays the same character over and over. So i thought it would just be another Kevin Hart movie.

[@BoldCarnivore]

What the hell are you smoking? The Super Mario Bros. Movie Country United States Language English Budget $100 million Box office $1.362 billion "faired little better"?

[@TraJonR3D]

Never played the games, wont watch the movie. I will survive. Hollywood NEEDS to get back to originality because the whiff of laziness and money grabs WILL NOT keep the silverscreen business alive for much longer.

[@genefreeman9591]

Blade is a first rated marvel movie!

[@brownzombie69]

Borderlands should have been a series, not a movie

[@MrAnderson4569]

Borderlands was the game the punk kids at church loved to talk about, and I don't typically like punk kids. I do like the outfits and it looks polished on the surface just from the trailer. I will likely never see it, but I was and am curious to jokes made. Even if it is a cliche fest, you can laugh and enjoy yourself.

[@jimmyburks7030]

I've played Borderlands for years, When they announced the cast I knew it was doomed, Kevin Hart as Roland! really? While Cate Blanchett and Jamie Leigh Curtis are great actresses but they are to old for the parts the played. Ariana Greenblatt was great as Tiny Tina but she was way too calm, Tiny Tina is a complete Psycho! It's like they knew they didn't have a great story line so they loaded it up with Top shelf actresses and Kevin Hart for their box office draw.

[@watchmeplay195]

It's probably flob because of Katt Williams calling Kevin Hart out as a sell out and industry plant. I don't know why they kept on letting Kevin Hart making movies lol. Dude not even funny and annoying at most. Should have hired Terry Crews instead.

[@IncognitoSprax]

Has nothing to do with Katt Williams, who himself just had his Netflix special bomb

[@Soul-cry1]

Terry crews is just as corny, not enough people no about this game for folks to care

[@darkmatter-mc5iv]

It was bad writing, and had actors playing characters that aren't the actual Crew of Vault Hunters from the game. No Mordecai, No Brick, No Bloodwing. 3 BIG reasons why it failed. I would've went to see Bloodwing.

[@jimmyg6780]

Jack Black ?…..anything he’s involved with after the controversy will be DOOMED.

[@brittaninoble9172]

Also, the only thing that was good that I got out of it was the popcorn bucket, which was clapped trap

[@seankimberley9671]

Casting is why I won't go see it. They didn't even try

[@royabraham9167]

No borderlands fan would ever say there's only 3 games. This review is BS.

[@XoLiTlz]

Studios kept making the same mistakes. To create a great game adaptation, you must stay as close to the source material as possible and only change what is clearly better (TLoU ep3). As a result, AAA games cannot be adapted into one movie since their stories are far too long. Instead, I hope that studios will pick up short indie psychological horror gems like Doki Doki Literature Club and Slay the Princess and adapt them into movies. These games are much shorter and cheaper to produce. And, of course, don't try to cast a wider net and twist the story in an unfaithful manner, R rated please. Imagine the general audience being duped by Doki Doki Literature Club's cute movie trailer and leaving the theater with a mental scar; the meme alone would drive people to view it.

[@matthewbowser9653]

“Fun video game movie”the game was cool like 12 years ago when the whole audience was like 15 if I could have bet on this movie flopping I’d be way up right now

[@craigherman8652]

I just don't think the game itself was well known maybe, not really sure. I did like the Fallout show, but maybe cause I played that more.

[@Eventwow]

I watched it. It was ok. I give it a high 6-7 out if 10. It wasn’t that bad. I do feel like it was close to GotG 2 story a bit.

[@brittaninoble9172]

I don’t know what Randy pitcher was thinking of the storyline, but I know they took some goodies from the games, but I just wish they were actually did more like they did something with some of the characters like making Atlas like the villain no, they were filling in the first film And the second games won’t make no sense and you’re up the backstory of one of the characters which was born on Pandora, which is tiny Tina, but I’m just like spoilers we should’ve had her powers for the whole movie at the beginning of the movie, not at the end of the movies like maybe that’ll be a good thing to make her back because her gameBack stories that she was born on Pandora she was a siren and then she goes hunting with a group in the first one game wish it could’ve been better wish I it would’ve been different people like I have nothing against Kevin Hart, but Rowan wasn’t really funny. he had some humor times, but it just didn’t hit.

[@AllThingsInfamous1]

As bad as the casting is they should have just casted luis guzman as Roland and been done with it.

[@benmallaresjr.9697]

This the first time I heard they made this game into a movie. Kevin is not the man for this movie.

[@TheLastRanger]

Looper have you not heard of Blade, 2 and 3. They were all R rated. Deadpool was not the first rated R marvel movie. 🙄

[@lovedrivindude]

You misunderstand, it’s the first Disney owned Marvel MCU R rated movie.

[@kioko696]

The Acolyte has a waaaay lower RT audience score 😅

[@dest151]

That's so true, I'm so tired of super hero movies.

[@Mobmezza]

Once i heard they were making a borderlands movie i was out. once i saw Kevin Hart, i was even outer

[@mattstansbeary3068]

The Sad news is Japan could hit a home run making Borderlands an Anime. While Hollywood Didn't listen & in the End didn't care to who they Target. Sonic would of Fail hard if The Director didn't listen & went back & Change Sonic.

[@oceantransistor]

Because it should have been rated r with a solid script. Case closed.

[@TheSithLord]

She didn’t mention resident evil as a video game movie. Guess it was a good series.