Earlier this week, we learned of Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick’s response to Borderlands’ “disappointing” silver screen debut, and now, Lionsgate CEO has commented publicly, too, saying that “nearly everything that could go wrong did go wrong”.
Jon Felthemier blamed “reshoots and rising interest rates” for Borderlands’ weak performance, but admitted that “the success of [Lionsgate’s] financial models doesn’t take the place of also getting the creative right”.
“On Borderlands, nearly everything that could go wrong did go wrong: it sat on the shelf for too long during the pandemic, and reshoots and rising interest rates took it outside the safety zone of our usual strict financial models,” the Lionsgate boss said during Thursday’s earnings call.
“Coupled with softer-than-anticipated results for other releases in the quarter”, Felthemier said there was “less margin for error than ever before”, with “several of [its] other releases in the quarter, though cushioned by financial models that worked as intended, [also not] living up to either our standards or our projections”.
Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick said in Take-Two’s own earnings call earlier this week that though “disappointing”, the movie hasn’t hurt the Borderlands video game series. In fact, it gave it a boost.
This year’s Cate Blanchett-fronted film was branded a “disaster” and “huge misfire” by viewers. In fact, one review called it a “lifeless, unfunny, and visually repulsive dud”.
The adaptation generated just $4m across 3125 locations on its opening day, before quickly getting shifted onto streaming services.
