Borderlands has had a record-breaking slump during its second weekend at the box office. The new Eli Roth movie, based on the video game franchise of the same name, features a star-studded cast that includes Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Edgar Ramírez, Gina Gershon, and Jamie Lee Curtis. Although sources say that more than half of the movie’s production costs were covered by international licensing, the Borderlands box office nevertheless disappointed during its opening weekend when it had a global debut of just $16 million against its roughly $120 million budget.

Per Deadline, the Borderlands box office has slumped hard in its second weekend, with Sunday estimates showing it falling from No. 4 to No. 9 with a 3-day total of $2.35 million at the domestic box office, which is a 72% drop from its opening weekend of $8.6 million. This drop breaks the record for the worst week 2 drop for a major 2024 live-action wide release so far. For this metric, a “major wide release” is being defined as a first-run movie that played in more than 2,000 theaters during both its first and second weekends.

How The Borderlands Week 2 Drop Compares To Some Of 2024’s Biggest Flops

The Movie Is Falling Behind By Two Different Metrics

Image via Lionsgate

This second weekend has struck another harsh blow for the Borderlands release. Because of its low-grossing opening weekend, its second weekend should not have had much farther to fall, allowing it to have a proportionally smoother week 2 drop than the average blockbuster. This is why more prominent commercial disappointments from this year such as Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 or Harold and the Purple Crayon dropped 51.5% and 48.9% in their respective second weekends. However, that was not the case for the new movie, perhaps spurred on by negative word-of-mouth.

In addition to a 10% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, Borderlands has a 52% audience score.

There are numerous releases that fared worse than Borderlands movie in their second weekends, as well, though their situations tended to be somewhat different. This includes limited releases as well as major releases that were more atypical types which tend to have larger drops, including anime releases (Spy x Family Code: White dropped 76.9%) and re-releases (Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace dropped 83.5%). Below, see how the video game adaptation compares to notable drops from comparable major live-action wide releases that were on its own playing field:

Title
Week 1
Week 2
Drop

Madame Web
$15.3 million (4013 theaters)
$5.9 million (4013 theaters)
61.4%

Argylle
$17.5 million (3605 theaters)
$6.2 million (3605 theaters)
64.2%

Fly Me to the Moon
$9.4 million (3356 theaters)
$3.3 million (3356 theaters)
64.8%

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
$45 million (4345 theaters)
$15.6 million (4345 theaters)
65.4%

The Bikeriders
$9.7 million (2642 theaters)
$3.3 million (2692 theaters)
65.9%

MaXXXine
$6.7 million (2450 theaters)
$2.1 million (2370 theaters)
69.1%

Borderlands
$8.6 million (3125 theaters)
$2.35 million (3125 theaters)
72%

The numbers show that the new movie’s record is somewhat comparable to titles like MaXXXine (which opened lower and had a roughly similar drop) and The Bikeriders (which had a significant drop despite playing in more theaters in week 2). However, both titles had budgets that, combined, were significantly less than half what the Roth movie cost. While its international licensing deal could mean that Borderlands could eventually become profitable between streaming, merchandising, and other after-the-fact revenue streams, it does not seem at all likely that the movie will hit its break-even point by the end of its theatrical run.