The Borderlands movie is the latest video game adaptation to make a statement in an era where the so-called “curse” of the genre has been broken by other films and series. That didn’t go as planned, and after being panned by critics and audiences, the film has now landed in fourth place at the US box office with a problematic debut.

The big hit of the weekend is Blake Lively’s It Ends With Us, which immediately doubled its $25 million budget in the US. The full list for the weekend is as follows:

1. Deadpool and Wolverine – $54 million
2. It ends with us – $50 million
3. Twisters – $15.4 million
4. Borderlands – $8.8 million

Sure, at least in part, this is Borderlands’ competition. Borderlands debuts alongside what is obviously an extremely popular hit, and in the wake of two major blockbusters with long runways. But it’s impossible to ignore the flaws of the film itself, a critics’ score of 10% and a CinemaScore from audiences of D+. It’s currently one of the worst-reviewed major films of the year.

The film attempted to appeal to a wider audience with a PG-13 rating that excluded the game and an original story. But that didn’t interest them, and diehard Borderlands fans didn’t like the many significant departures from the games in terms of plot, characterization, and casting. The film had two high-profile Oscar winners, Cate Blanchett and Jamie Lee Curtis, and a major box office draw, Kevin Hart, but it didn’t take full advantage of their impact.

The good news for Borderlands is that 60% of production costs were reportedly covered by international ticket sales, the studio says. However, with a budget of $115 million and $30 million for marketing and distribution, recouping that amount with a premiere as low as this is a huge challenge.

There were well-formulated plans for this to be the start of a larger Borderlands universe on screen, which could be why so many of the franchise’s key characters were missing from the first installment, but that now seems unlikely. Video game adaptations continue to be most successful as streaming series, such as The Last of Us and Fallout, although kid-targeted games like Super Mario Bros. and the Sonic series have also done well at the box office.

As for the Borderlands IP, a fourth main game in the series has been teased endlessly for some time, but it has yet to see an official debut. It’s unlikely that this movie has influenced plans for it.

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