It would appear that any publicity really is good publicity, at least as it applies to 2024’s Borderland film, which despite bombing at the box office, actually helped the game’s sales.
That’s according to Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick, who claims that the film, written and directed by Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, Hostel, Thanksgiving) and based on Take-Two’s Gearbox studio game, though grossing only $33 million worldwide on a reported production budget of around $115 million, “benefitted catalogue sales,” surprisingly.
“With regard to Borderlands, we don’t really need to break out the contribution from the film, because while it was economically positive, it wasn’t material to our results,” Zelnick said during the company’s latest quarterly earnings call on Wednesday.
A screenshot from the Borderlands series/Take-Two Interactive
“Even through the film was disappointing, it actually benefited our catalogue sales, so that is a sign that making a movie or a television show based on our very high quality IP can drive catalogue sales, and that can be a good thing,” Zelnick added.
“All that said,” Zelnick continued, “we’re really selective, and one of the reasons we’ve been so selective about licensing is we would really prefer that everything that comes out with our brands in it is really, really successful, and we can’t guarantee that, especially when it’s out of our hands. So, we have licensed other titles, we will continue selectively to do so, but [note the] ever so subtle word, selectively.”
Which Take-Two Interactive is set to be made into a film next? A film adaptation of the revered BioShock series, which is set to stream on Netflix and will be directed by I Am Legend and Hunger Games: Catching Fire director Francis Lawrence.
Will the BioShock movie help push the game’s sales even if the movie is widely panned and does poor streaming numbers? If Zelnick’s statement at the company’s earnings call and the thoughts he shared with IGN prior to the call are any hint, Take-Two is betting on the answer being yes.
A screenshot from the Borderlands game series/Take-Two Interactive
“Obviously that movie was disappointing,” Zelnick told IGN of the film starring Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis, Cate Blanchett and Jack Black. “That said, it actually sold more catalog. So, I don’t think it hurt at all, if anything I think it may have helped a little bit. It does highlight something that I’ve spoken about many times which is the difficulty of bringing our intellectual property to another medium.”
Are you surprised that despite ‘disappointing’ at the box office, the Borderlands film helped boost game sales? Was the bad publicity actually good publicity in this case? Let us know in the comments.
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