While there’s no direct correlation between a film’s box office success and the speed with which it appears on demand, often the worse a movie does, the sooner it shows up. That’s why it’s no surprise the video game adaptation Borderlands is coming home this week, just three weeks after its release.
From director Eli Roth, and starring the likes of Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Ariana Greenblatt, and Jamie Lee Curtis, Borderlands opened up in theaters on August 9 and will be available to rent or buy digitally this Friday, August 30. It’ll cost $25 to buy or $20 to rent for 48 hours, and you can find it via all your favorite services: Amazon, Apple, Google, etc. The price may sound high, but not when you consider that’s how much a movie ticket might cost.
So why the quick turnaround? Well, pull up a chair because there’s a lot of story to tell. Lionsgate first teamed up with Gearbox to make a movie based on its popular gaming series in 2015, but it wasn’t until early 2020 that director Eli Roth signed on and things started moving. Of course, early 2020 meant instantly the film was pushed back due to covid and while Oscar winner Cate Blanchett signed on early, it took over a year for the rest of the film to cast up. That was mid-2021.
Production began and then things went quiet. That changed in 2023 when news broke that Deadpool director Tim Miller reportedly came on to do reshoots. Quickly any buzz or anticipation for the film began to wane. Whispers of delays, reshoots, and major changes throughout post-production continued to dampen expectations for over a year, all leading to its August 9 release.
As the only big genre film opening that day, one may have expected Borderlands to see at least moderate success based on its cast and name recognition alone. That was not to be. It opened in fourth place with just $8.6 million over its first three days. Since then, it’s struggled to get past $15 million domestically and as of publication, it’s at almost $25 million globally, against a budget reportedly north of $100 million. That’s, simply put, bad.
But I have to say, I thought the trailers for the film were good in a “this is a less exciting Guardians of the Galaxy” way, and now that it’s playing at home, for 20 bucks, I might give it a shot, even just to see what went so wrong. I’d imagine many others will do the same. So, while three weeks after release is a borderline embarrassing turnaround for a major film, maybe it’ll be for the best.
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