Earlier this month, Borderlands arrived in theaters to horrendous reviews and bad box office numbers. At the time, many assumed it might be the biggest cinematic dud of 2024. But, that title is now held by the newly released Crow reboot.
The idea of rebooting The Crow was already a strange and controversial one. Sure, the original 1994 film was a small but profitable hit, but it is more widely known for the tragedy surrounding the death of Brandon Lee during its production. The following sequels to the OG Crow failed to find success. Most people believed it was wrong to even reboot the series. Yet, Hollywood went ahead and made a reboot anyway. And what do you know, it’s flopping hard!
The Crow reboot released on August 23 to negative reviews from critics and moviegoers. After its opening weekend, it only earned $4.6 million domestically at the box office. Yikes! In comparison, Borderlands made over $8.5 million during its first weekend.
After about five days in theaters, The Crow has made less than $10 million. Meanwhile, Borderlands—which is reportedly already getting a home release in late August—is sitting at a cool $25 million worldwide at the box office.
Type O Negative had two albums in the 2000’s, and they were only OK (especially compared to their 90’s albums), but I’d say they still count as “pulling off something remotely ‘goth’”
Plus, Nine Inch Nails has some good stuff in the aughts, and Trent Reznor’s brand of industrial rock is definitely “goth-adjacent,” as are My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade (2006, I think) and AFI’s Sing the Sorrow (2003), which are both great albums.
And in more recent music, the band Creeper is really killing it. Their rock opera Sex, Death, and the Infinite Void is very goth and it’s amazingly good (especially as someone who turned his nose up at pop-punk as a kid).
In non-music media, there have been some really good comics with goth aesthetics in the last 20 years, and I can give some good recs if anyone is interested.