It Ends With Us beats Borderlands in the box office collection by a great margin

Blake Lively starrer It Ends with Us opened at $50 million domestically from 3,611 North American theatres, according to Box Office Mojo. It added another $30 million internationally, bringing the worldwide total to $80 million in its opening weekend. The remarkable box office performance, beginning August 9, is now standing at $86 million worldwide.

In sharp contrast, Lionsgate's highly anticipated adaptation of the video game Borderlands, which also opened on August 9, had a poor showing in comparison. According to Box Office Mojo, the film domestically earned just $8.8 million from 3,125 theatres, while overseas it earned $7.7 million, making its worldwide total $16.5 million. The movie's current revenue is $12 million worldwide.

The poor performance of Borderlands underscores the domination of It Ends With Us, strongly indicating that its source material had great appeal and was effectively adapted to have significant resonance with audiences.

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It Ends With Us sees strong audience resonance

The romantic drama It Ends With Us has performed very well with the public at the box office. This huge audience has majorly trickled down from Colleen Hoover's 2016 namesake novel. The film adaptation not only sustained the depth of the emotions in the story but also showed elements of how a character and their relationships can be complicated.

This authenticity is reflected in the movie's box office performance: $50 million domestically and $30 million internationally. Moreover, the strong word-of-mouth regarding the film with an "A-" CinemaScore further helped to raise its success. The fact that it was able to attract a broad demographic — including less frequent moviegoers — shows its wide-reaching appeal.

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Borderlands fails to meet expectations

In contrast, though, Borderlands bombed hard, considering both the famous cast and the success of the video game series from which it was adapted. The $16.5 million worldwide total for the film represents a pretty paltry return on a $115 million production budget.

The movie appalled on the critical side as well, obtaining a "D+" CinemaScore and a low Rotten Tomatoes score. The adaptation lost the elements of the game, breaking its resemblance not only with the franchise fans but also with the general audience. It lacked humor — represented in the game — and an engaging storyline, which contributed to its fall.

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Audience preferences and market dynamics

The failure of Borderlands stands on the opposite of the success of It Ends With Us, which speaks to broader trends in audience preferences and market dynamics. It Ends With Us satisfied a need in the market by taking on female audiences and low-frequency movie viewers — users who liked the plot and found themselves within it.

At the same time, Borderlands joined the video game adaptation problem list, showing how huge stars and a rabid fanbase don't mean anything for movie materialization. On the other hand, its inability to connect with the core audience indicates that to be successful, an adaptation must not only remain true to the source material but also offer something new to the cinematic experience.

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Contrasting performances of the two recent releases, It Ends With Us and Borderlands, identify that, in reality, one truly must connect with their target audience.

As the former worked at the box office, it simply maintained a grasp on its fundamental literary roots and the emotional depth found within the novel. Meanwhile, the latter flopped by not looking toward the source material and audience expectations.