The Borderlands film, which comes out this week, is getting some uh…not amazing reviews. It currently is sitting at a wildly low 3% on Rotten Tomatoes, and we here at IGN gave it a 3/10.
Borderlands the franchise is created and owned by Gearbox, which was itself just acquired by Take-Two. And Take-Two (through its 2K label) is one of the many companies producing the film, along with Gearbox. So when I chatted with Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick today ahead of the company’s Q1 earnings call, I asked him about the critical reception. Will the film’s success or failure impact Take-Two in any meaningful way?
The answer, per Zelnick, is no. Financially, this film won’t make a dent. But he also urged to “give the film a chance” despite the negative critical reception. Here’s his response:
“Let’s give the film a chance. A lot of people worked really hard on it. The underlying intellectual property is phenomenal, the cast is amazing, I think the look and feel is really terrific. So let’s see what audiences have to say. But to answer your question, no, the performance of the film wouldn’t have a financial impact on us or on the franchise one way or another.”
I went on to ask Zelnick about his opinion on video game films in general, a subject he’s spoken about often. He reiterated his answer from the past, which seems not to have changed. Take-Two is “really selective” about what games it turns into films, and he says that the company doesn’t want its imprint on anthing unless it’s “superb.” However, he adds that the economic impact of licensing a game IP into a movie is small, so there’s no reason to really do it unless the creative teams involved are really excited.
“It’s not really core to us,” he said, to make films out of games. And he added that he expects the publisher will “probably maintain” its approach to only doing so selectively in the foreseeable future. Notably, Take-Two is involved in one other in-progress film: a BioShock film at Netflix. That film has been in various developmental stages for over a decade, with Netflix jumping on board in 2022. Most recently, we learned that leadership changes in Netflix’s film department resulted in a reduced budget for the BioShock movie, which is still in the works but is apparently being “reconfigured.” It’s unclear when or if it will see the light of day.
In its earnings, Take-Two reported total Q1 net bookings of $1.22 billion, and projected net bookings between $1.4 billion and $1.47 billion for Q2. Its full year guidance is still between $5.55 billion and $5.65 billion. Its expectations for a fall 2025 release for GTA 6 are still the same.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.