2024-08-20 23:38:34
When a movie studio decides to reach a target group built in another industry, for example, computer game players, it can end up being quite a fiasco. This is shown by the results of the new action film Borderlands starring Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett.
The film based on the game series of the same name had a budget of around 115 million dollars, with Lionsgate spending around 30 million more on marketing. However, Borderlands took in just $15.9 million worldwide in its first weekend, and according to Variety.com, it doesn’t seem likely that it will improve the balance dramatically in the coming weeks.
Forbes magazine even considers it “almost impossible” for the project to end at least at zero.
After last year’s success of the animated feature Super Mario Bros. in the film and series The Last of Us or Fallout, it seemed that Hollywood had finally found a way to successfully adapt computer games.
It is understandable that he is still trying to do this despite many failures. The global game market has grown to more than 200 billion dollars, while the film market could end up slightly below 80 billion this year, according to estimates. In this case, the bet on the post-apocalyptic series, whose last installment Borderlands 3 from 2019 sold around 20 million copies, was not incomprehensible in this case.
But apparently the studio chose the wrong creator. Originally engaged, Craig Mazin, associated with the Chernobyl miniseries or the game adaptation of The Last of Us, backed out of the project, which had been in the works since 2012.
Director Eli Roth at the Borderlands premiere. | Photo: Reuters
Instead, the studio reached out to Eli Roth, known for horror films such as Hostel, but this was apparently a mistake. And it became apparent at the latest when Borderlands required extra touches, but it was led by a different crew led by Tim Miller, Variety.com’s analysis continues.
The resulting film was certainly not helped by the extremely bad reviews, where the average score from reviewers on the Rottentomates.com server is only around 10 points out of 100. And the timing was probably not the best either – the news premiered between two significantly more explicit titles, the comic book hit Deadpool & Wolverine and the new by the sci-fi horror Alien: Romulus.
According to Movieweb.com, players were also upset that the film deviates from the original in important ways, aiming more for a variation on the Mad Max saga than really trying to capture the spirit of the game. According to Forbes.com, the writers may have made some decisions on purpose in the hope that Borderlands would kickstart the entire series, but that now seems extremely unlikely.
Of all the feature films based on video games that have been made in the last decade and headed for wide distribution, Borderlands had one of the worst starts ever last week. Only the adaptations of Monster Hunter and Resident Evil: Raccoon City, which premiered during the coronavirus pandemic, fared worse.
According to Variety.com, it’s a red flag for Hollywood at a time when nearly two dozen game-based projects are in the works.
Netflix will release the Tomb Raider animated series later this year. | Photo: Netflix
This year, the Netflix video library will release the animated series Tomb Raider, the second season of Arcane: League of Legends and a project based on the game Devil May Cry, while the Amazon Prime Video platform is preparing a six-part live drama from the Japanese underworld Like a Dragon: Yakuza. During the Christmas holidays, the animated Hedgehog Sonic 3 will also be heading to cinemas in the Czech Republic.
Next year, new films based on the games Minecraft and Mortal Kombat or a full-length sequel to Five Nights at Freddy’s are to follow, not to mention new series of The Last of Us, Fallout, Twisted Metal or The Witcher.
On the other hand, viewers will no longer wait for new episodes of the sci-fi series based on the Halo game, which Paramount canceled after two series in the summer. And there are other signs that the entertainment industry is putting the brakes on game-based projects.
Netflix has pulled the plug on the live-action adaptation of Horizon Zero Dawn, and the third season of the Arcane: League of Legends series based on the game Arcane: League of Legends will not be created on this platform, even though the first one won the prestigious Emmy Award. Although the company continues with the preparations of the film about the fall of the underwater utopia BioShock, but with a lower budget than originally planned.
The film Borderlands is also showing in Czech cinemas these days. | Video: Etiquette film
As always, money is key. Especially in a situation where movies or series based on games try to look even more realistic than their already expensive models.
According to Variety.com, it was Halo, based on the action sci-fi saga of the same name, which, according to some viewers, seemed like the authors skimped on it. For example, the montage of all the action scenes of the hero Master Chief from the first nine episodes of the series, located on the YouTube server, lasts only six minutes. And the decision of the creators to fill the remaining time, for example, by giving the protagonist an intimate life, met with resistance from the audience.
The creators of the post-apocalyptic series The Last of Us, which was one of the most watched on HBO last year, was also one of the most expensive – it cost over 100 million dollars, more than any of the first five fantasy series Game of Thrones.
But now parent company Warner Bros. Discovery is saving money, so it announced that the sequel to The Last of Us will be two episodes shorter.
Forbes.com found that feature films based on games tend to be most successful when they are aimed at families with children, as was the case with Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario Bros. in the movie or the three-year-old Pokemon: Detective Pikachu.
But if the game material is more for teenagers or adults, the success of TV series such as The Last of Us or Fallout, or the animated Arcane: League of Legends can often be observed. What they have in common is that they made full use of the rich game world of the template on the large surface of the many-hour narrative and elaborated it in detail. Less than two hours, as in the case of Borderlands, often may not be enough, concludes Forbes magazine.