Borderlands: Eli Roth explains the missteps behind his box office flop
Eli Roth has finally explained why his Borderlands film flopped at the box office, despite being based on Gearbox Software’s hit sci-fi looter video game franchise.
If you blinked and missed it, the Borderlands film adaptation came out back in 2024—and bombed in fairly spectacular style. It’s rare to see a studio pour $120 million into a video game movie only for it to fizzle out, but that’s exactly what happened here. Now, director Eli Roth has spoken up about what went on behind the scenes, and frankly, it’s a proper cautionary tale of studios reining in risk and ending up with no one happy—not filmmakers, not fans, and definitely not box office accountants.
With just $32 million banked worldwide, Borderlands ranks as one of the most notorious flops of the decade.
How to Lose an Audience in One Easy Step
Roth, never one to mince words, says his original vision got well and truly diluted by the time it hit cinemas. He wanted full-on, punked-up chaos (quite in keeping with the Gearbox video game source material), but the studio dialled everything back in the name of a PG-13 rating—ostensibly to save on costs. Whole scenes were trimmed or sliced out entirely, because apparently nothing says ‘beloved franchise’ like making it palatable to everyone and, as a result, no one at all.
As Roth explained in his recent Variety interview:
‘As things grow bigger, studios just naturally become more risk averse. My nature as a filmmaker is to do the thing that’s left of centre, because that’s what has worked for me.’
Neither Here Nor There
Even Roth himself describes the end product as ‘that belonged to nobody,’ and it’s hard to argue. Not violent enough or properly anarchic for core gamers, but not something you’d take the kids to either. The reviews were brutal—currently sat at a grim 10% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics (and not much love from regular viewers, who threw it a weak 48% Popcorn score).
- Cate Blanchett led the cast as Lilith
- Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina
- Gina Gershon as Moxxi
- Kevin Hart as Roland
- Jack Black voicing Claptrap
- Supporting players included Jamie Lee Curtis, Haley Bennett, Florian Munteanu, Benjamin Byron Davis, Olivier Richters, and Janina Gavankar
Even the Razzies Noticed
Lionsgate handled distribution, with production steered by Avi Arad and Erik Feig. To put the final nail in, Borderlands was up for several Golden Raspberry Awards in 2025. I suspect there’s more to the story yet, but as far as Roth’s concerned, Borderlands is a lesson in what happens when risk-averse studios water down what could’ve been a wild, blood-soaked ride and end up making almost nobody happy.