‘Disappointing’ Borderlands movie benefitted game sales, says Take-Two

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has labelled this summer’s Borderlands movie “disappointing”, but claimed it had a positive impact on game sales.

Based on the video game series developed by its Gearbox studio, the Borderland film was written and directed by Eli Roth, and starred Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis and Jack Black.

The film grossed just $33 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo, against a reported production budget of roughly $115 million, plus marketing and distribution costs of $30 million.

It was widely panned by critics and had a very short theatrical run, making its way from the big screen to digital storefronts in just three weeks.

During Take-Two’s quarterly earnings call on Wednesday, the company was asked to break out the contribution from the film, whether it benefited game sales, and if it planned to license more of its IP for adaptations.

“With regard to Borderlands, we don’t really need to break out the contribution from the film, because while it was economically positive, it wasn’t material to our results,” CEO Strauss Zelnick responded.

“Even through the film was disappointing, it actually benefited our catalogue sales, so that is a sign that making a movie or a television show based on our very high quality IP can drive catalogue sales, and that can be a good thing.

“All that said,” he continued, “we’re really selective, and one of the reasons we’ve been so selective about licensing is we would really prefer that everything that comes out with our brands in it is really, really successful, and we can’t guarantee that, especially when it’s out of our hands. So, we have licensed other titles, we will continue selectively to do so, but [note the] ever so subtle word, selectively.”

In February 2022, it was announced that Take-Two had partnered with Netflix to produce a live action film adaptation of BioShock, which is set to be directed by Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend, The Hunger Games).

During a panel at San Diego Comic-Con this summer, producer Roy Lee said the scope of the BioShock film had been “reconfigured” after Netflix cut its budget.

“The new regime has lowered the budgets,” he said (via Variety). “So we’re doing a much smaller version. … It’s going to be a more personal point of view, as opposed to a grander, big project.”

Borderlands 4 was recently announced for release in 2025.