Earlier this week, we learned of Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick’s response to Borderlands’ “disappointing” big-screen debut, and now the Lionsgate CEO has also commented publicly, saying that “almost everything that could go wrong went wrong.”

Jon Felthemier blamed Borderlands’ weak performance on “returns and rising interest rates”, but admitted that “the success of (Lionsgate’s) financial models is no equal substitute for good creativity”.

“In Borderlands, almost everything that could go wrong has gone wrong: the project was shelved for too long during the pandemic, and reworks and rising interest rates pushed it out of the safe zone of our usual strict financial models,” said the Lionsgate boss. during Thursday’s earnings call.

“Coupled with weaker than expected results for other publications during the quarter”, Felthemier said there was “less margin for error than ever before”, with “several (its) other publications during of the quarter, although amortized by financial models which performed as expected, (also not) up to our standards or our projections”.

Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick said during Take-Two’s earnings call earlier this week that although “disappointing”, the film did not harm the Borderlands video game series. In fact, it gave him a boost.

This year’s film, directed by Cate Blanchett, has been called a “disaster” and a “huge misfire” by viewers. Actually, one review called it “a lifeless, unfunny, and visually repugnant dud”.

The adaptation generated just $4 million spread across 3,125 locations on opening dayBefore quickly switch to streaming services.