“Borderlands” partial movie poster.
Borderlands—the critically-derided video game movie adaptation starring Cate Blanchett and Kevin Hart—is bombing in its opening weekend in theaters.
Borderlands is Lionsgate’s PG-13 adaptation of the blockbuster video game series of the same name. The first game in the Borderlands series—developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K—was released in 2009.
Blanchett stars in Borderlands as Lilith, a mysterious bounty hunter who reluctantly returns to her home planet of Pandora to search for the missing daughter of a rich and powerful space baron (Edgar Ramírez). Returning decades after she left the planet, Lilith finds that Pandora is dilapidated and inhabited by rogues and aliens yet still contains a vault filled with treasure that has yet to be located.
Hart stars in Borderlands as a mercenary who joins in Lilith’s search for the vault, along with a scientist and archaeologist (Jamie Lee Curtis), a preteen demolitionist (Ariana Greenblatt) and her bodyguard (Florian Munteanu). The group is also accompanied by the wisecracking robot Claptrap (voice of Jack Black).
Deadline projected on Saturday that Borderlands is on track to earn $8 million to $10 million in its opening Friday-Sunday frame in 3,125 theaters. Going into the weekend, the trade publication projected the film would earn $15 million in its weekend debut.
Adding insult to Borderlands’ box office injury is the film’s production cost, which Deadline pegged to be in the $110 million to $120 million, with an additional $30 million spent on prints and advertising.
How Badly Did Critics Rip ‘Borderlands’?
Borderlands has been widely panned in its reviews, which started to surface on Thursday.
As of Saturday, Rotten Tomatoes critics have collectively given Borderlands a 10% “rotten” rating based on 92 reviews. The RT Critics Consensus for the film reads, “Glitching out in every department, Borderlands is balderdash.”
Among the most scathing reviews of Borderlands on Rotten Tomatoes came from London Evening Standard’s critic Vicky Jessop. In her takedown of the film, Jessop writes, “Is Borderlands the worst film of the year? It’s definitely in contention—so laughably bad, in fact, that it feels like being catapulted back to a time when video game adaptations were a byword for mediocrity.”
Jessop sums up her review by noting how Borderlands “borrows all its best bits from other films, and it knows it: the setting from Mad Max, the tone from Fallout, the helmets from Star Wars and Cate Blanchett from literally any other film she’s been in.
“Here’s a recommendation: save yourself the bother of watching this, and watch one of those other films instead,” Jessop added.
If there’s any saving grace for Borderlands, RT users who’ve seen it have a more positive take on the movie. Viewers gave Borderlands a 50% “rotten” Audience Score based on 250-plus verified user ratings.
Directed by Eli Roth, Borderlands is playing in theaters nationwide.
Note: This report will be updated on Sunday with updated box office estimates for Borderlands. The final numbers for this weekend’s box office will be released on Monday.
