Borderlands is a failure at the box office
Image via Lionsgate

Borderlands movie is a complete disaster at the box office

Claptrap has a lot more to worry about than stairs.

Lionsgate might be trying to find a Vault full of cash right now, as the Borderlands movie box office numbers for its opening weekend are bleak. The film’s domestic opening for the August 9 weekend brought in only $8.6 million, taking fourth place behind Deadpool & Wolverine, It Ends With Us, and Twisters for its debut.

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Overall, Borderlands made a worldwide box office gross of $16.9 million (via The Numbers), which is tiny compared to its reported $115 million budget (via IGN). Assuming the typical marketing spend outside of its production budget, D+ Cinemascore, and negative fan sentiment, Borderlands doesn’t look like it’ll make that money back.

Box office YouTuber and analyst Dan Murrell says that Borderlands will be one of the biggest box office bombs of the year, if not the largest. What doesn’t help are the awful reviews for Borderlands, with our sister site WGTC calling the film “bottom of the barrel.”

Surprisingly, some big names are part of the eclectic Borderlands cast, including Jack Black (School of Rock) as Claptrap, Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween) as Tannis, Cate Blanchett (Thor: Ragnarok) as Lilith, and Kevin Hart plays Roland. Despite so many household names, series developer Gearbox may want to forget this entry ever happened, and remain focused on its new game in development.

It’s not all bad news for the Borderlands series, however. The third game has seen a 14.5% player boost on Steam over the past 30 days (via Steam Charts), likely due to the publicity of the movie (or viewers of the film who want to forget about it).


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Image of Chris Penwell
Chris Penwell
Chris is a writer for multiple outlets, including Destructoid! He loves narrative games like Kingdom Hearts, Life is Strange, and Beyond Good & Evil. However, he does enjoy Fortnite and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate from time to time.