The Borderlands movie looked like it was doomed from the start. The movie was initially pitched all the way back in 2009, and was in production for a very, very long time. All that while, all anyone could think of was ‘how do you make a Borderlands movie?’ and ‘who wants a Borderlands movie?’
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If even Uwe Boll is laughing at Borderlands, maybe it’s time to move on.
The movie eventually launched in August this year and, to no one’s surprise, immediately bombed. Not only was the movie struggling to sell tickets, but it also debuted at zero percent on Rotten Tomatoes. While there was absolutely no redeeming factor to be found in the Borderlands movie, it seems that it managed to bump up the sales of Gearbox’s games.
Fans Wanted To Remember When Borderlands Was Good
This was revealed during an earnings call for Take-Two, which took place on Wednesday. Apart from confirming that GTA 6 is still set for a Fall 2025 launch, Take-Two mentioned that despite the abysmal reception, and the massive financial loss, the Borderlands movie somehow positively impacted the sales of Take-Two games.
As reported by VGC, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick was asked on the call how the performance of the movie impacted the games, and if the company planned on licensing any more IPs out for movies.
“With regard to Borderlands, we don’t really need to break out the contribution from the film, because while it was economically positive, it wasn’t material to our results,” replied Zelnick. “Even though the film was disappointing, it actually benefited our catalogue sales, so that is a sign that making a movie or a television show based on our very high quality IP can drive catalogue sales, and that can be a good thing.”
He went on to explain that while this was the case, the company wants to be very “selective” when it comes to licensing out its IPs. This is because Take-Two is unable to ensure the quality of the final product when licensing out an IP for a movie or TV show. However, he did mention that other IPs have been licensed, and kept stressing that they plan to take them forward selectively.
As for why Take-Two saw a bump in game sales after the movie, it’s hard to really say. But a game seeing a bump in sales after a movie or TV show is pretty normal. Perhaps Borderlands fans needed to be reminded why they loved the games after being disappointed by the movie.
Borderlands 3 is a looter-shooter in the vein of its predecessors, where players aim to incrementally upgrade their arsenal through completing missions, defeating enemies, and upgrading skills. Set on the planet of Pandora, your aim as a Vault Hunter is to take down the Calypso siblings and save Pandora.