With Borderlands 4 in development and set to release next year, the franchise has made a desperate attempt to get into theaters. A feature film that is nevertheless supported by a dream cast, but which obviously doesn’t know how to find its place. It’s a monstrous failure, but not for Take-Two, who are reassuring.
The publisher Take-Two is not to be pitied, it is one of the most productive on the market and the year 2025 promises to be tough. GTA 6, Civilization 7 or even Borderlands 4, all planned for next year. This affair will hurt our wallets, but will certainly do a lot of good for the publishing finances. Take-Two knows how to capitalize on its franchises. The giant has even teamed up (from afar) with big names in cinema for a film border areasbut it was a dismal failure. However we had some great people in casting, Jack Black, Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Hart to name a few. Behind the camera are several who have passed the handlebars, including Eli Roth, well known to fans of horror cinema.
Borderlands is a colossal failure, but nothing serious for the license
Despite its good looks, the film is border areas was seized violently. With a total cost of around $115 million, the film ultimately only grossed $31 million. It hurts very, very much, so much so that even Uwe Boll, the world champion of turnips and failed adaptations (House of Dead, Alone in the Dark, Postal…), mocked. But despite the disaster, Take-Two doesn’t grimace too much against all odds. Strauss Zelnick, head of the company, spoke to IGN shortly before its financial report and reiterated that for him the film was a flop “Didn’t hurt at all” to the franchise and even would have done it “It helped a little”.
If he agrees to it « The film was disappointing », Zelnick states that things have been quite beneficial for Take-Two since then“It helped sell more of the game in the series.” “I don’t think this mistake hurt the license at all” he concluded. But for Strauss Zelnick, it shows something he’s talked about before: Borderlands is a difficult license to bring to the big screen. “This highlights something I have spoken about many times: the difficulty of adapting our intellectual property to a different medium.” he explains in the IGN columns.
A franchise that cannot be adapted to cinema?
It’s not wrong. It must be said that the franchise is known for going to the end without censorship, be it in the text or in the very graphic violence. It’s part of the universe, everyone is crazy and violent. It’s also particularly bloody, between the mutations and the hectoliters of hemoglobin we release when we shoot deep. For it to be authentic, we would have to be able to transcribe all of this on screen, which is difficult for anyone trying to reach the general public. On the other hand, like movies Dead Pool have managed to find a place for themselves while accepting violence and uninhibited humor.
In any case, the Borderlands license is obviously doing very well. However, Borderlands 4 has an interest in surprising us since the third work had begun to show the limits of the formula, the same applies to Tiny Tina’s Wonderland, although the games continue to be very fun to play in collaboration. We’ll see, it won’t be that far by 2025.
Source: IGN
