Key Takeaways
- Borderlands movie was a box office flop but boosted game sales.
- CEO Zelnick acknowledges the challenges of adapting games to movies.
- Borderlands 4 is in development, with uncertainties about its success.
The Borderlands movie was arguably a failure, but it’s not all bad news according to Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick. The CEO recently discussed a number of games by the company’s developers, including the future of the Borderlands series and how the recent feature film impacted it.
Nearly a decade after it was initially announced, the Borderlands movie finally hit theaters in August 2024. While the movie was headlined by major actors like Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, and Jack Black, it bombed at the box office, failing to recoup its budget. The Borderlands movie failed to please game fans as well as the general public, and has been seen as a mistake by many fans of the iconic looter shooter series.
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Now, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has discussed the movie’s impact with IGN, and shared that he’s not seeing the movie’s release as having an entirely bad result. Zelnick says that the movie was disappointing, but that it actually had a small positive impact on the company, as it helped to sell more Borderlands games. Zelnick didn’t offer any official figures, but Borderlands 3 did see a major resurgence after the film’s launch. It seems the film had a positive impact for Take-Two, even if it failed to take off at the box office.
Adapting Games to Movies is Hard
Zelnick continued, saying that the experience with the film underscored what he had previously said in interviews about games being hard to adapt into other mediums. However, he’s also said that there’s little risk to licensing a game IP for a movie. It’s not clear if Take-Two will see this film’s impact on its catalog as a reason to give the go-ahead to more adaptations, or if it may move away from films for the most part.
While the Borderlands movie was a flop, the series is continuing on, with Borderlands 4 on the horizon. Very little is known about the project so far, and it has a lot of work to do to bring fans back into the fold after the mixed reception surrounding Borderlands 3. While developer Gearbox has said that Borderlands 3‘s sales exceeded its expectations, the last-shared statistics indicate that it hasn’t matched Borderlands 2‘s sales record yet. While the game was lauded for some elements, many players were dissatisfied with the story and certain character developments, which could carry over into how players anticipate the sequel. For now, it remains to be seen if Borderlands is on an upward trajectory or will falter with its next entry.
Borderlands
Borderlands is an action RPG first-person shooter created by Gearbox Software and published by 2K Games. The series is commonly called a looter shooter set in a space Western style, where players can select from multiple classes that can level up and acquire new skills. The franchise has quickly become one of the best-selling franchises and produced spin-offs like Tales from the Borderlands as well as a film adaptation being developed by Lionsgate.