Summary
- Borderlands movie, initially a box office flop, found success on streaming services.
- The film has attracted a new audience, potentially leading to increased interest in the game series.
- Initial negative reception may ultimately be overshadowed by a positive streaming performance that helps the franchise expand.
It’s fairly common for adaptations to aim at expanding a franchise’s audience beyond the borders of its original medium and reigniting interest in the franchise with longtime fans. Whether that was the intention of Gearbox’s Borderlands movie is somewhat unclear, but there is little doubt that there was at least some notion in there that the film would reach a demographic the video game series has been unable to reach since its inception. Unfortunately, the movie faced an exceedingly underwhelming box office performance, as well as negative reception from fans and critics alike, meaning it initially appeared to have done very little to expand interest in the Borderlands franchise beyond the gaming landscape.
However, more recently, the Borderlands movie has been accomplishing something it failed to achieve when it was on the big screen last August, meaning it may be able to have its desired effect of reaching beyond its borders after all. As the Borderlands film has been performing admirably on streaming services, there is proof that there is still an audience out there for it, despite its poor theatrical reception. In light of that, the Borderlands movie might actually succeed in expanding the franchise’s audience, drawing more attention to the games, and preparing longtime fans for the launch of Borderlands 4.
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The Borderlands Movie Might Actually Expand the Franchise’s Audience
The Borderlands Movie Is Performing Well on Streaming Services
In a somewhat unexpected twist of fate, the Borderlands movie has been performing rather well on streaming services. Currently, the film is available for streaming on STARZ, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu via the STARZ add-on, and users can rent or purchase it on other platforms like Vudu and Apple TV. While there is no data about how Borderlands is doing on STARZ, Hulu, Vudu, and Apple TV, some recent numbers recorded of its reception on Amazon Prime Video show the movie doing much better than many fans might have expected.
As the Borderlands film has been performing admirably on streaming services, there is proof that there is still an audience out there for it, despite its poor theatrical reception.
After its lackluster theatrical release, there has been a resurgence in popularity of the Borderlands movie, particularly on Amazon Prime Video. In the United Kingdom, after debuting on Amazon Prime Video, Borderlands quickly became one of the platform’s most-watched titles, with it ranking as the top movie and fourth overall in viewership. If nothing else, this just shows that the film has found its niche somewhere in the world, and if that’s the case, it can’t be all that bad. In fact, preemptive negative publicity might have victimized it and created a degrading lens through which skeptical viewers experienced it.
The Borderlands Movie’s Streaming Performance Might Direct More Eyes to the Games
Again, it may not be that the sole intention of the Borderlands movie was to expand the franchise’s audience, but that is generally the case with adaptations. At the very least, it likely got fans of the series thinking about the games again and potentially even revisiting them ahead of and after the movie’s release. After its surprising reception on streaming services, though, that effect has probably multiplied, and there is a chance that the video game series has earned itself some newcomers since the movie’s debut on Amazon Prime Video.
While the Borderlands movie initially appeared to fall short of expanding the franchise’s audience, its recent success on streaming services suggests that its impact may be more substantial than it first seemed. If the film continues to find an audience in the streaming space, it could still serve as a bridge for new players to discover the Borderlands series, proving that a rocky start isn’t always indicative of the final outcome.
Borderlands
- Release Date
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August 9, 2024
- Runtime
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102 Minutes
- Director
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Eli Roth
- Writers
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Eli Roth, Joe Crombie
- Franchise(s)
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Borderlands
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