While “Minecraft” is gigantic sums, the film adaptation of “Borderlines” remained behind the expectations. His director Eli Roth has now explained the reasons that had made a decisive contribution to disappointing response.
More and more video game stamps end up on the big screen, sometimes more and sometimes less successful. “Borderlands” is not one of the greatest highlights of this genre. The film adaptation of the video game of the same name was published in August 2024 after several shift.
Despite the top -class cast and an established brand, the financial and critical success failed to materialize. In an interview with the podcast The Town the responsible director Eli Roth said in detail about the background of the failure.
Restrictions from pandemic and virtual communication
Roth described the production phase of “Borderlands” in an interview as strongly influenced by the pandeme -related restrictions. The implementation of central production steps via digital means of communication such as zoom was particularly problematic. In this way, significant preparations – including meetings with stunt coordinators and the preliminary visualization of complex scenes – could not be carried out as usual in direct exchange.
Central team members were distributed over various sets through travel restrictions and local lockdowns. Again and again filming had to be interrupted due to covid outbreaks. These circumstances would have made it much more difficult for the following.
“I think none of us had expected how complicated things would be with covid. (…) You can’t prepare a film of this extent via zoom”, emphasized Roth several times in an interview. The team thought that it could be done. But in the end it was more wish than reality.
Thanksgiving got in the way
Another factor that, according to Roth, contributed to difficult implementation, was the change in the creative team during the post -production of “Borderlands”. Due to his parallel work on the film “Thanksgiving”, director Tim Miller took over the management of the Nachrehs. Roth saw the finished work for the first time in an early cut without being involved in the final production section. This was a new and unusual experience for him.
“I remember that I thought: am I at the point of my career where I will sit down and watch my own film, which I say I have written and directed it – and I really don’t know what will happen?” Said Roth.
Despite these challenges, Roth expressed appreciation for the production partners involved. He does not rule out future cooperation with the Lionsgate studio – but not under comparable framework conditions.
Criticism and commercial record
“Borderlands” started with an estimated budget of $ 115 million, but initially played at the box office only around $ 30 million. For comparison: The “Minecraft” film started in early April 2025 is already coming to more than 500 million US dollar.
The response of spectators and critics also failed. On the Rotten Tomatoes platform, the film reached a criticism of only ten percent.
Despite the negative perception, there are indications of positive effects that emerged from the film adaptation of “Borderlands”. The CEO of Take-Two explained that the publication would have increased the sales figures of the associated game series.
Further reports on Borderlands.
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