Director Eli Roth has finally revealed why the Borderlands movie became a massive box office flop. The 2024 live-action film was based on a successful sci-fi looter video game franchise developed by Gearbox Software.
Roth said that the finished product released in theaters was farther from his punk rock vision. The 54-year-old director revealed that the studio behind the $120 million Borderlands movie wanted a PG-13 version to avoid additional costs. As a result, several scenes were either removed or altered.
According to Roth, it all led to an inevitable box office disaster. “As things grow bigger, studios just naturally become more risk averse,” he told Variety. “My nature as a filmmaker is to do the thing that’s left of center, because that’s what has worked for me.”
The Borderlands movie grossed only about $32 million worldwide and was panned by both critics and audiences. Currently, it holds a poor Tomatometer score of just 10% and a Popcornmeter score of 48% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Why Eli Roth believes Borderlands drifted away from his original vision
Eli Roth revealed that the final version of Borderlands was something “that belonged to nobody” and, as a result, failed to make an impact.
“It’s not a kids’ movie, but it’s trying to appeal to everybody. It’s for gamers, but it doesn’t have the violence the gamers want because it can’t be that extreme because it costs too much. You just wind up with a movie that’s neither fish nor fowl.”
The Borderlands movie featured a large ensemble cast led by Cate Blanchett as Lilith. Other key cast members included Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina, Gina Gershon as Moxxi, Kevin Hart as Roland, Bobby Lee as Larry, and Jack Black as Claptrap.
Jamie Lee Curtis, Haley Bennett, Florian Munteanu, Benjamin Byron Davis, Olivier Richters, and Janina Gavankar also appeared in supporting roles.
Borderlands was produced by Avi Arad and Erik Feig and distributed by Lionsgate Films. The film was later nominated for several awards at the 2025 Golden Raspberry Awards following its poor critical reception.
Originally reported by Mintu Kumar Tomar on ComingSoon.net.
