Lionsgate's “Borderlands” enters its second weekend with little chance of topping its $8.6 million opening.
I watched Borderlands 5 times (it got worse each time)
While Nintendo and Universal's "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" boosted the prospects of gaming IP at the box office last year, a project like "Borderlands" would undoubtedly expose the classic tricky business of movie studios relying on built-in audiences from entirely different mediums.
Of all the video game adaptations that have had wide release in the past decade, “Borderlands” ranks near the bottom, above Sony’s “Monster Hunter” and “Resident Evil” adaptations, which were released into a COVID-ravaged theatrical landscape. Its opening is comparable to 20th Century’s “Assassin’s Creed” adaptation, which flopped with a $10 million opening, was a critical disaster and cost more than $100 million to produce, as did “Borderlands.”
But unlike “Assassin’s Creed,” “Borderlands” followed a climate that has warmed immensely to video games. In addition to “Mario,” “Fallout” and “The Last of Us” have been smash hits for Amazon Prime Video and HBO, respectively, while gaming itself remains a $200 billion industry, far larger than Hollywood’s traditional markets.
