Will The Borderlands Movie 2024 Get A Sequel?

‘Borderlands’ has finally hit cinemas, and it boasts a cast of colorful characters played by hard hitting actors like Jamie Lee Curtis, Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart. Now that the film’s out, it’s understandable that there are those that are wondering if the film will get a sequel and continue to bring the game to life on the big screen. 

‘Borderlands’ of course draws on a well established video game franchise, one that draws on the insanity of the apocalyptic world of Pandora, full of raiders, psychos, and armed thugs from the Atlas corporation. The film isn’t a straight adaption of the first game. For example Lilith, played by Blanchett, isn’t blessed with the abilities of a Siren until the end of the film, whereas in the game she has them from the get-go. The Destroyer doesn’t appear out of the vault for players to fight, instead only maybe making a small appearance. 

The ending of the film leaves a lot of potential for the where the franchise could go next. While the Atlas corporation is left in ruins – and its leader dead – that’s not the only megacorp that exists in the ‘Borderlands’ universe. Now that there’s a power vacuum, a sequel could introduce the main corporation and bad guy of ‘Borderlands 2’, Handsome Jack, CEO of Hyperion. In the games, he’s taken over Pandora, and rumours of a new, bigger vault have fueled a desperate search. A sequel could take a similiar approach.

At the end of the ‘Borderlands’ movie, Atlas meets his untimely demise at the hands of a mysterious monster. The film leaves it unclear what this is, but it could be The Destroyer from the first ‘Borderlands’ game. In that game, when the vault is opened, players find themselves fighting this monster. As t’s missing from the movie adaptation, a sequel could fix this, bringing in The Destroyer as a bigger threat.

As well as needing places to take the story and characters, director Eli Roth and the studio Lionsgate will have to look at three important real world factors to determine whether it’s viable to make a sequel to this video game adaptation, and it’s here where things may become uncertain. 

The first is critic reactions, and it’s pretty clear that ‘Borderlands’ isn’t excelling in this area. Review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes puts this film at a paltry 3% rotten score, with critics pointing to the derivative nature of the film – Nick Schager for the Daily Beast describes it as “So drearily routine and slapdash that even an A.I. would deem it too plagiaristic,” – and the failure at any kind of comedy, with it amounting to a failed attempt to capture something appropriating the tone in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ – Dan Jolin from Empire says “‘Borderlands’ so wants to be ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’… But it doesn’t come close.” 

Of course, critical reaction isn’t everything. Critics aren’t the ones that the studio has to convince to spend money on the film, a big part of that is fan driven. It’s hard to gauge at the time of writing what the fan reaction will be to the film, as that’s something that will be determined in the coming days. 

Something else that will be determined in the coming days and weeks is the box of ‘Borderlands’. If the film manages to make Lionsgate a healthly profit, it’s very likely executives might look to develop a sequel, perhaps to capitalise on what fans enjoyed about the film or improve on what the critics despised (as well as make more money). The film has an estimated production budget of between $110 million and $120 million, which doesn’t take into account maketing spends. Generally, a film needs to make 2.5 times its budget to be considered profitable due to marketing costs and participating revenue receivers. 

It’s unclear whether ‘Borderlands’ will meet this bar. Box Office Pro, a tracking website, predicted on August 1 that the movie would debut in the US box office anywhere between $10 and $20 million, which is low for any franchise aspirations. Of course, the international marketplace might save ‘Borderlands’, but this is unclear. 

It doesn’t help that ‘Borderlands’ is facing stiff competition for both audience members and screens, with ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’, ‘Trap’ and ‘It Ends With Us’ fighting to be seen. Though the opening weekend will only set the tone for the box office narrative, it’s a story that will be told over several weeks, meaning audiences will have to wait for confirmation either way on the fate of a sequel.

So, while ‘Borderlands’ has plenty of characters and lore to pull onto the big screen, it faces a tough real-world battle to get a sequel. The critical reaction has been nothing short of savage, and the box office potential for the film looks like it will spell doom for anyone holding out for a sequel. Fans will have to wait and see if the film will be picked up again.