Key Takeaways
- The Borderlands movie was an infamous disaster, one of the worst-performing blockbusters of the Summer.
- Director Eli Roth has finally spoken out about the movie, saying that he could “write a book” on what went wrong.
The Borderlands movie was a disaster. Despite its stacked cast and huge marketing push, the movie only made a measly $33 million, barely denting its $155 million budget.
The writing had been on the walls for years, and Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer even admitted that “nearly everything that could go wrong did go wrong” (thanks, IGN), arguing that it sat on the shelf for too long during the COVID-19 pandemic while reshoots and rising interest rates inflated the budget.
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The Borderlands Movie Somehow “Benefitted” Game Sales
There may finally be one redeeming factor of the Borderlands movie.
There’s a near-decade long history to this movie, so when it came up in an interview with IndieWire, it’s unsuprising that all director Eli Roth had to say was that he could “write a book” on what went wrong.
Roth Says COVID Played A Part
While Roth didn’t linger on one of the biggest blockbuster duds of the Summer, he hinted at what’s to blame for how it turned out: “Making that in COVID”.
That was a whole other story. Making that in COVID was like… I could write a book on that.
As the world quarantined, with strict regulations put in place like social distancing to reduce the spread of the virus, several films were cancelled, over 150 were delayed, and sets shut down if one person had a positive test. It’s no wonder then that Lionsgate shelved the movie for years to wait out the worst of the pandemic.
It undeniably had an impact, as COVID did on every production. But even prior to the pandemic, Borderlands was in development hell, constantly being passed around.
What Went Wrong With The Borderlands Movie?
Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford wanted to capitalise on the success of Tales from the Borderlands, but the movie took so long that Telltale shutdown, returned, and a sequel was released.
At the start of its lengthy decade in development, Leigh Whannell was in talks to write and direct the movie, but a year later, it was announced that Aaron Berg was now writing the film. In 2018, Oren Uziel took over, but a mere two years later in 2020, Roth stepped up to adapt Mazin’s script… which was then rewritten a year later by Juel Taylor and Tony Rettenmaier, and then again by Roth.
But perhaps the biggest omen of all was that Roth said he was inspired to pitch the film after seeing his French bulldog pooping, as it reminded him of Claptrap. That’s… not a joke, just read this article from SlashFilm.
