Eli Roth’s Borderlands may have to work harder in the next couple of weeks as the science fiction film starring Kevin Hart and Cate Blanchett opens with a depressing box office haul. It also did not help that it premiered alongside Blake Lively’s romantic drama movie, It Ends With Us, as the latter immensely captured the audience’s interest.
The big-screen adaptation of the famed Gearbox Software video game suffered tremendous criticism from fans even before its opening day, and with the result of early screening reviews, it seems like an uphill battle to at least turn a profit.
Borderlands Receives A Dismal CinemaScore Rating
Lionsgate’s Borderlands infamously received a zero approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes before its worldwide premiere. Regardless, this won’t totally affect the interest of fans who want to see the film for themselves.
As reported by Game Fragger, the movie earned $1.3 million from Thursday night previews, and is now “tracking to earn between $10M-$18M at the domestic box office over the course of its opening weekend.”
The sci-fi action film reportedly had a production budget of $120 million which is too massive for a franchise that hasn’t proven its profitability. CinemaScore gave it a depressing D+ rating, which obviously means the audience who went to see it was incredibly dismayed.
It's a D+ for #Borderlands Did you see this film tonight? Let us know in the comments below. #Cinemascore #BorderlandsMovie pic.twitter.com/36yKrknRyF
— CinemaScore (@CinemaScore) August 10, 2024
What’s CinemaScore, anyway? It’s a company that measures the appeal of movies using poll results from moviegoers. The scores range from A+ to F, and the surveys are given to viewers directly at theatres across North America and Canada. Basically, once they finish watching the movie, they will answer a few questions from the poll and drop them in the designated ballots.
Video game adaptations are usually a tricky business, but when the director outright tells the public he’s creating a movie for personal purposes and not as a service to the fans of the game then that’s where the castle starts crumbling.
It Ends With Us Lands A Remarkable Profit On Its Preview Night
Blake Lively’s It Ends With Us makes an impressive performance as Variety reports it earned $7 million on Thursday previews. The outlet claimed the romantic drama film is “projected to make between $25 million and $35 million, though some estimates put it even higher at $40 million to $50 million.”
The popularity of Colleen Hoover’s novel on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram will be the main asset of the movie. The production cost only amounts to $25 million so it has so much potential to turn a neat profit in the coming weeks.
CinemaScore gave it a staggering A- rating, which is insanely helpful in driving up more ticket sales. Perhaps it’s on rare occasions like this that a low-budget romance film gets a more impressive rating than a big-budget action movie.
It's an A- for #ItEndsWithUs Did you catch this in theaters tonight? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. #Cinemascore #ItEndsWithUsMovie pic.twitter.com/Q7MhL1tEjM
— CinemaScore (@CinemaScore) August 10, 2024
It remains to be seen how these two controversial films fare at the box office in the next few weeks, although it seems obvious at this point that one has more advantages than the other.
Borderlands and It Ends With Us are now showing in theaters.
