As a critic, it's generally my job to treat all things with grace, but I can say with confidence that the shockingly critically acclaimed film Borderlands didn't do well, and I trust the opinion of fellow PC Gamer writer Joshua Warrens. After sitting down and watching the entire film, Warrens described it as “a tasteless sludge that doesn't seem to be trying to save anyone involved” and “an excuse to buy a bucket of popcorn.”

The critics' assessment seems to be reflected in the U.S. box office, with Variety reporting that the film “Borderlands” grossed $8.8 million in its opening weekend in the United States. This is for a film that cost $115 million to produce and another $30 million for marketing and distribution.

Adding these costs together means that the U.S. weekend performance of “Borderlands” was about 6% of what it cost. To put this in perspective, the same amount of tickets would need to be sold about 16 more times in order to break even.

Of course, an international release is in the works, and as “Forbes” reports, 60% of the production costs have already been covered by presales.

As much as I'd like to say something bad here, I feel similarly about “Suicide Squad”: not only did “Kill the Justice League” cost Warner Bros. about $200 million, but as of this writing, on Steam 86 people (peaking at 217 hours) have played it. In other words, it's sad. Sad. [Especially since the “Borderlands” series seems to have a tendency to miss easy slam dunks. I spent about 58 hours on “Borderlands 3” and its DLC.

But other aspects of the film, namely the story and overall direction, have been chronically mismanaged for years, and it's sad to see it bleed into the film; I can understand why HBO's “Last of Us” writer Craig Mazin walked away from the film before it was a flop. I can see why.