Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick has an upbeat outlook on this year’s Borderlands film, and said that the “disappointing” movie hasn’t hurt the Borderlands video game series. In fact, it gave it a boost.
It’s fair to say that the Borderlands film did not take off to the degree many had hoped and will not exactly go down in a Hall of Fame alongside the likes of HBO’s The Last of Us or Amazon’s Fallout, both of which were praised by fans and critics alike.
Alas, for poor ol’ Borderlands, this year’s Cate Blanchett-fronted film was instead branded a “disaster” and “huge misfire” by viewers. In fact, one review called it a “lifeless, unfunny, and visually repulsive dud”. Eesh. The adaptation generated just $4m across 3125 locations on its opening day, before quickly getting shifted onto streaming services.
Zelnick commented on the film’s performance last night during an earnings call for Take-Two. When an investor asked about the project and how it contributed to the company, Zelnick stated Take Two didn’t “really need to break out the contribution from the film because while it was economically positive, it wasn’t material” to the company’s results.