Zelnick maintains that Take-Two does not need to break down the contribution of the Borderlands movie in its financial report, because even though it was «economically positive it has not been material to our results.» The executive acknowledges that the film was «disappointing,» but that it still «benefited our catalog sales,» which for the company is a sign that making a movie or television series based on one of its intellectual properties can boost sales of titles already available. This was already discovered by Sony and Bethesda Softworks with The Last of Us and Fallout, respectively.
However, it seems that Take-Two has learned a lesson with Borderlands. Zelnick says that «we are very selective» when it comes to assigning licenses because «we prefer that everything that comes from our brands be very, very successful,» but they cannot guarantee this when it is not in their hands. The executive assures that they will continue granting licenses, but emphasizes that they will do so «selectively.» Perhaps with Borderlands they lent their intellectual property too lightly or didn't supervise the film's production well.
The budget for Borderlands was around $115 million, to which $30 million in distribution and marketing costs must be added, while the gross was less than $33 million. Take-Two is in trouble and that means that Lionsgate, the film production company responsible for the film, is in the red.
For now, the only project that Take-Two has beyond video games is the film adaptation of BioShock, about which we barely know anything since its announcement in February 2022. At the San Diego Comic-Con 2024 it emerged that the project is moving forward with director Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games, I Am Legend), but with a smaller budget than initially planned. In this case the responsibility for the film lies with Netflix.