The new fantasy kid on the block failed to deliver the cash money New Line had hoped for. We get the scoop today from the professionals at Variety:
New Line’s big-budget fantasy epic “The Golden Compass” had trouble finding its bearings at the domestic box office, grossing an estimated $26.1 million from 3,528 theaters. That’s a soft debut considering the film’s pricey production budget of at least $180 million.
New Line said while the film’s performance fell below expectations–New Line had estimated that the opening haul would be between $30 million and $40 million–“Compass” had a strong international debut, grossing an estimated $55 million from 25 territories in its day-and-date debut.
I enjoyed this film, and to be honest – I am a little surprised that it did not fair better at the box office this weekend. It was the only major release and I thought it would crack 50 million for certain; this is why I don’t gamble professionally. With the benefit of constant news coverage I would have thought it a shoe in for box office plunder.
This movie failed to attract the kids, and they are the ones that bring parents in tow. For whatever reason the advertising was not successful to the demographic it was intended to target, and it did not become a must see film for the youngsters. I would like to do an “in house” poll with those of you that have kids. Did your kids bug you to see this film and if not, ask them why it does not interest them.
Eragon, meet His Dark Materials.
Well the movie was good but not great due to the rushed state of the storyline.
and of course,
– the weather is bad to be going out for movies,
– money are spent on x-mass shopping instead of movies,
– the anit-christ rumors are spreading and it’s a turn-off and it’s x-mas.
– it was not sensationalized like the viral-marketing of “Cloverfield” which is honestly, intriguing that’s why many watched it.
– the anti-christ rumor is a no no because it directly attacts God, whereas Harry Potter is as we know wicked in the bible base but it doesn’t have any anti-christ message and it appeals to the kids due to the special FX, creatures, broad, amazing storyline.
I think there are two reasons why it wasn’t as successful:
-poor marketing
-smaller fan base
Although it has a tough theme to sell since the books are notoriously anti-religion, I highly doubt that the protests have had much to do with it. The Da Vinci Code was one of last year’s highest earners, and yet attracted a huge amount of oppossition. If anything, protests help, it makes things interesting.
The protests might have had a greater effect on this film, however, because of the type of film it is. Its a children’s movie, not an adult drama like The Da Vinci Code. Even though most people don’t pay attention to religious protesters, the fact that the movie has a subtextual anti-religious meaning, parents may be a bit weary about taking their children to see it. Most Americans have some form of religion and most of them are not big on introducing their children to atheism at an early age.
Bad reviews probably weren’t to blame either, although I’m sure they didn’t help. Look how poorly reviewed Alvin and the Chipmunks was as well as National Treasure.
New Line just did a bad job of making sure that people were interested in the movie. To give them credit though, its a hard movie to sell; a children’s fantasy epic consisting of adult themed ideas. Its too childish to be fully appreciated by most adults and too adult-like to seem interesting to children.
I’m an atheist so the anti-christian controversy only served to make me want to see a film that was boycotted because the author was atheist. Honestly though, if I had not heard about the author’s quotes, I would not have thought this movie was anymore anti-religion than Star Wars. It seemed to be merely anti-big-evil-government but when put together with the author’s quotes, I can see where he was inspired by the old Catholic power structure which basically WAS once the government in Europe.
In the film, there was some oppressive authority that knew what was best for people, and wanted to control what people believed, suppress certain scientific theories, and (mentioned only briefly) force 16 year old girls to give up their babies. That does fit with the Catholic church’s history but GOD, religion, etc. were never mentioned or even hinted at in the film, so it is up to the viewer to imagine that religion was the source of the authority rather than just government.
In my opinion, a government with no religious influence whatsoever is capable of oppressing and controlling people in those ways without using religion (especially in a high-tech society where we can be easily monitored). So even though I’m an atheist, I don’t accept that religion has to be behind such evil. However, religion does make it easier for people to accept the oppression and is often used by governments for that very purpose. There was just no evidence of that in the film. If the author had kept his mouth shut, I don’t think anyone except the most paranoid Catholics would have felt targeted.
Funny, I felt that if the author of Narnia had not been such a vocal Christian, and pointed out that his stories were in fact pro-Christian, I would not have guessed it. In fact, I read the Narnia stories before I knew anything about the author, and I assumed that his stories would be viewed negatively by some Christians beause of the magic, witches, and talking animals (plus the kids in the story were not all that nice or obedient). I was shocked when I read that the talking lion was actually symbolizing Jesus and that Christians were ok with that rather than insulted. I felt that Wizard of Oz, Narnia, Alice in Wonderland, and Harry Potter would all be lumped together as being anti-Christain tales of pagan magic, but the context given by the author OUTSIDE of the book/film can determine whether Christians accept or reject these fantasy tales. If JK Rowling would have claimed a Christian theme as her inspiration, maybe HP would not have been boycotted by some Christians. And if this author had not attacked religion in a magazine interview, this film would not have been labeled as anti-Christian.
Bottom line is this movie was not that good. It was dark, with a lot of time between action scenes and the storyline just didn’t quite click with me. It didn’t pull me in the way LOTR or even Harry Potter did. They needed to spend more time developing the movie version of the story in a way that would be interesting and flow well. This didn’t. And they didn’t target an audience – children, adults, sci-fi fans? They left all disappointed. It was still nice escapism and somewhat entertaining, but not memorable at all. I don’t see this movie as enduring. It will soon be forgotten unless a sequel is produced.
Why would I, a Christian/Catholic want to put money into a politically active Atheist’s pockets? Why would I want to assist him in making more movies that have the underlining message of the non-existance of God? Why would I want to send a message to Hollywood that they should adapt more of Mr. arrogant Pullman’s books to the big screen? I shouldn’t. I would be a hyprocrite if I did. I am one of those “flakes,” “nuts” and “Bible thumpers” who kept my family home from the movie. I decide what causes I shall support, not Hollywood and the secular crowd! It is not the movie that concerned me; it was Mr. Pullman’s arrogance and political clout. Christians would be STUPID to spend money on his anti-Christian heavily disgusised message as he laughs all the way to the bank. THIS is why Golden Compass was not successful; I know of no family in my area (yes, college-educated families) that plans to see the movie. Just as many of you would not buy Domino’s Pizza (decades ago)when the company owner was giving tons of money to fight abortion, we Christians have the same right to decide on which side of an issue we will stand with our pockets CLOSED. It’s all about “choice” and responsibility.
To be honest, my son purchased the book a few years back and did not enjoy it. When we saw the trailer, it looked good to us. When we started hearing about the anti Catholic overtones and that the children had “daemons” following them around – We said absolutely not!
To be fair, I quite enjoyed the Harry Potter books and message, and it goes without saying that LOTR and Narnia are household favorites. We love sci-fi and fantasy but we will not pay money to see our beliefs mocked – Nor would we pay money to see a movie that mocked the faith of our Hindu, Jewish, or Muslim friends. This should send a message to Hollywood to watch the content.
@nbakid2000: Maybe we need another version so people like me can watch it?
I mean in colors and with sound :P
@nbakid2000
I’m with you. I’m not interested at all in I Am Legend, but never underestimate the drawing power of Will Smith. That bastard got me to watch Wild Wild West, for pete’s sake. I haven’t really felt much buzz for the movie, but if Big Willie is there, people will be there in droves.
Jordan, how about a spoiler warning?! Geez.
I personally don’t see what’s so great about I Am Legend – as I said, it’s a remake of Omega Man. Do I really need another version? The original was fine.
@oldshell
You said : ” think xmas shopping might have something to do with it too. Around this time of year, it seems the entire world is using their precisious weekend afternoons to try and get presents for everyone under the sun.”
Don’t seem to remember that harming LOTR one bit…. Guys, it’s not shopping, it’s not weather, it’s not football, it’s not any of these excuses the studio is groping for. Fact is, the movie was not very good, the marketing was boring, and while most people may not put much stock in reviews, they damn sure listen to word of mouth from friends. Word of mouth has been brutal, and man, this thing is gonna get ass-raped by I Am Legend this weekend. Hope New Line has their lube ready.
My wife and I were busy this weekend, and didn’t have time to see it, like many people are this time of year.
However after seeing the miserable reviews it is receiving we might not bother.
That said, the first Narnia movie was horrible, and it made money, so who knows. I read the Narnia books as a kid, and barely remember them, all I remember is that they were long-winded and boring much like the Lord of the Rings Books (LotR movies were much better than the books).
There were many problems with the Narnia movie but the 2 that annoyed me most were:
They have an epic battle at the end of the movie where all of the good-guys are brought back to life at the end? What is this a G.I. Joe cartoon?
Second was the bad acting of the kids, it was like having 4 Jake Lloyds on the screen at once.
I would have to guess the problem with the Golden Compass is it is a poor movie, and then it was also poorly marketed. Mainly because Hollywood keeps trying to pawn off every fantasy movie as the next Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. Why don’t they just make the movie based on the book, instead of trying to make it follow the LotR (or HP) archtype.
It also takes a special director to pull off a fantasy movie properly, because the director will need to have a love of the genre and source material, or it will seem insincere to fans, which is a kiss of death to a fan boy movie.
Viddy…
I honestly don’t know. I’ve never read the books or spoken to anybody who has. I’m just going off of what I’ve heard from the innumerable emails and Christian petitions that I’ve seen, read and heard about.
Another person mentioned the weather being a factor too – I can attest to that, the weather here is miserable and is part of the reason I didn’t feel like going out this weekend. Most people probably felt the same way, besides all the shopping they were doing.
Our family saw this movie over the weekend. Don’t bother if you haven’t seen it. It’s dreary, boring and not particularly well done. It has none of the elements of an entertaining fantasy movie. Kid’s will not flock to it in droves like they did to LOTR and the others. Nest Narnia film will be out this spring. Save your $ for that one.
I think the overall feeling I’m reading in these comments are, “If you set out to write a book that’s anti-Narnia, (note I didn’t put anti-christian) you can expect anti-Narnia money when you make a film about it!”
If I was going to go the Christian route I could also post the fact that you don’t write books and make movies that will tick-off God! Come on, if he knows a personification of himself will get killed off in the third film I’m sure he’ll swing some numbers not to get the third movie made!
HA!
I have 5 kids, and it was my 6 and 7 year old that wanted to go see it. I don’t take them to the theater to see PG-13, not knowing what to expect. I think that is the major downfall, it was geared toward under 13…while being rated for over 13.
If my 9, 11 or 12 year old wanted to see it, I would have taken them.
Austin – I don’t doubt that the fan-base is smaller than that of lotr, although I don’t think the narnia books are nearly as popular as they have been in the past (well not over here anyway). However, I do think that the series HAS seeped into the popular consciousness, at least in Britain. Pretty much everyone I know in their twenties has read these books as well as a fair chunk of adults and i’m sure a whole heap of the kids in their teens. A few years back it came third in the BBCs poll of the nations favourite books (looking at wiki it was called the Big Read in 2003). I know the UK is a very small market compared to the US, but I think the golden compass will be huge over here even if they have changed the name from northern lights (a very strange decision).
“The books sold 12 million copies worldwide”
I think you’re mistaking “wide-selling” with “fanbase-building.” Both LotR and Narnia have sold more than 100 million copies, and have had upwards of 50 years to build a base (LotR was HUGELY popular with the boomer crowd during the sixties and seventies, what with Frodo being appropriated as a mark of the counterculture), and for a number of adults today, the Narnia books dominated their childhood. His Dark Materials first appeared in 1996, and has had little time to seep into the consciousness of the population – if it ever does, given the paucity of modern readership. LotR was pushed to box office success on the strength of its following (huge), and the revelation that Peter Jackson made a well-crafted series of films. Narnia has yet to reach those heights (although two more films are planned), but was aided by the aforementioned Christian/church-demographic.
The Golden Compass marketing felt confused, and kept trying to tie the movie back to Narnia and (stylistically) to LotR. I think that backfired, like it did earlier in the year for that great film Stardust, because people see those visual references and immediately think “knock off” or “blatant money-grab.” If you don’t have a base to get excited about the film – a base larger than 12 million (and remember that “books sold” is not the same as “books read”) – then financial success will be difficult to attain.
“there is no built-in fanbase and it’s part nostalgia. i remember reading Narnia and listening to the LOTR audio plays back in elementary. that is why i desired to see them.”
– The books sold 12 million copies worldwide, I’d call that a fairly large fan-base. The books were especially popular over here in Britain, so I’d expect it to have pretty good numbers over here.
I think xmas shopping might have something to do with it too. Around this time of year, it seems the entire world is using their precisious weekend afternoons to try and get presents for everyone under the sun. I think the numbers’ll pick up once the kids are on school holidays, when there’s more time. As for the christian angle, some die-hard christian nutters told kids to boycott harry potter as he is a “warlock”, and we can all see the effect that had…. oh no, wait…
Yeah, exactly, I’m in college as well and finals had NOTHING to do with me not seeing a movie – a 2 hour movie is NOT going to make you get bad grades, and if it does – maybe you should’ve studied a little harder during the main school year.
The movie just looked like it sucked.
The film might have had a strong international opening but New Line has sold off all the international profits so let them try and spin it.
I can’t even begin to tell you how mad i was at the ending and it’s not going to help get any repeat business. A Polar Bear fight isn’t enough to get me back, even if my only other choice is ‘Alvin and the chipmunks’.
@sdsviet
I’m in college, and this coming week is finals week for me(wish me luck guys!), but I doubt that had anything to do with it. If we college kids want to see something, we see it regardless of finals or any other bs excuses the studios throw at us. Even though I was studying this past week, I still found time to see this thing at a free screening, so I don’t think finals play that big of a role here. The movie just looked boring,and none of my friends were buzzing about it. I had to practially drag a friend with me to the screening. The movies are also considerably dark in tone to be marketed to little kids. Even the last Potter flick, the darkest of the series, had some good humor for the kids to latch onto. This thing was dull, grim, and boring.
But the polar bears ruled…
@ fritzilla.
Right on! I don’t know where I stand with religion, I was raised Catholic. I haven’t been to church in 20 years, except for weddings, but the author’s quotes really turned me off.
Especially when he said he wanted to write the “antidote” to the Narnia books. That’s some agenda! It just feels so “villain twirling his moustache.”
I got the chain email and then did a little researching on my own to see the background of the author. In his own admission he says the books are about a group of kids killing god. He said he doesn’t understand spirituality and the concept is very foreign to him. To be honest, I love LOTR and I enjoy Harry Potter (not as much as LORT). But the way the author describes his own books and the fact that the first one is meant to be lighter in tone on the anti-Christian themes to suck you in to the trilogy, really sorta turned me off. I was interested when I saw the first trailer and was a shoe in, but then after that my wife and I decided not to see it.
Putting the whole anti-Christian view aside, any movie/book where the author doesn’t understand the concept of spirituality is hard pressed to create a compelling adventure that resonates with the audience.
Now a lot of people said they liked the books, so perhaps the “toning down of the anti-Christian aspects” to appeal (read: offend less) to a wider audience could have zapped the movie’s soul, if you will.
Not to mention it’s coming out around Christmas. I mean come on, think about it.
Maybe God decided to keep people away. But seriously, there are places in the world where that’s still a lot of money. It’s all relative, you see. No, wait, I think that’s another dangerous statement to make.
i dont know how many of you guys commenting here are college students but i myself am one and you have to considered the fact that this upcoming week nationwide is finals week for many universities and colleges. i really dont know what their demographic is but i for sure wasnt gonna sacrifice grades to go watch any types of movies. i bet this upcoming friday will be huge for I Am Legend since most college students will be done with finals. but i’ll be probably watch that on sat when im totally hungover, haha
Also, IF they DID hit the kids they were intending, I’m betting the kids who saw the commercials thought, “this looks like a bunch of old people walking around”.
That and the poor reviews.
I’m with everyone on the marketing angle – I’ve read all 3 books (albeit years ago) and was really looking forward to the movie. Then I saw the trailers and it looked booorring.
Apparently none of the other people who were supposedly going to go this weekend that I knew went either – so I think that people may have been interested in the movie but not enough.
I don’t think any boycott contributed to the poor turnout. Very bad marketing and poor reviews contributed a lot more (Only 43% on Rotten Tomatoes).
I think it just came out during the wrong time. There are already three kids movies out right now, one of which is a Disney princess film which is always guaranteed to bring in the dough. Also, I think Americans are a little fantasy epic weary and it just looked too much like Narnia or LOTR.
Also, Nicole Kidman has lost a lot of her drawing power (although Daniel Craig should have been a good pull for a few people at least).
So what happens after they kill God, Jordan?
The author of Compass has said that the Narnia Books and their Christian themes “disgusted him” and he wanted to write the anti-Narnia books. That’s kind of a hard sell to church going folk.
there is no built-in fanbase and it’s part nostalgia. i remember reading Narnia and listening to the LOTR audio plays back in elementary. that is why i desired to see them.
I really liked the movie, as did my buddy who introduced me to the books. Our two friends who didn’t know the source material coudln’t follow the movie at all. So part of the lack luster sales goes to the fact that the movie itself was flawed.
I also attribute this to the fact that in the last 3 weeks or so the price of movies has gone up drastically. A matinee where I live, check zip code 20832, has gone from $6 before 6 pm to $8 for a 3:15 movie.
The way I see it, any family of 4would have to drop about $50 to see this movie, when they could just rent it for $5.
Has anyone else noticed the drastic rise in movie prices since November?
Hmmm there are many things that could attribute to the low grossing of the movie. First I feel that this movies trailers did look really unintresting. Second its got more bad press then good press. Lastly I thing no one really cares. Its the same basic premise as many other kiddie fantasy films. We already have Harry, Nardia, then there was Minzey and a few more that were so forgetable I cant even remember. So I feel this kinda saturated market of fantasy kids films is growing old. Not to mention that kids fav summer movies are comming out and its time for X-mas shopping.
It is worth noting that the film is based on a series of books written by an atheist. In the third book, the main characters find God to be an old man, and kill him. The author describes his books as “anti-Narnia”. They are also fairly obviously anti-Christian, although my friend tells me that the movie downplayed that theme, (unsuprisingly).
There has thus been a pretty big movement among the church-going folk of this nation to boycott this movie. I personally have no real interest in seeing the film.
Why Narnia and LOTR, but not the Golden Compass? Narnia and LOTR both had heavy spiritual overtones, (Alsan’s life and death in the first Narnia installment is quite obviously a direct reference to Jesus). Tolkien and Lewis were both good friends and also Christians.
Part of the huge success of Narnia is due to the number of Christians who love the books. I myself was practically raised on them. Similarly, a pretty hefty contingent of Christians went to see LOTR, although it’s less obvious spiritual themes and more adult content might have led to its greater appeal among the rest of the nation.
So it is entirely possible that the Christian boycott of the Golden Compass contributed to its lack of financial success.
The commercials, trailers, all of it looked boring. For a film supposedly aimed at children, it was not marketed as a kiddie film. It’s rated PG-13, so they couldn’t run commercials on kiddie networks like Nickelodeon and Disney that only run commercials for PG and G films. Young kids may not have even been aware that the film was coming since their favorite channels didn’t run ads for it. When they released that five minute preview at Comic-Con, I came on this site and predicted that children would be turned off by this film’s boring, talky-talky approach. Turns out I was right. You can have all the cool polar bears in the world, but if people are just standing around talking the whole time, how can you expect kids to be interested?
My kids are not small anymore, but I encouraged my two sons to read this book. I enjoyed it so much that I read the other two in the series as well.
I received a “list” email about two weeks ago asking that everyone boycott this movie as it was “anti-catholic” and “anti-God”. I responded that was a bunch of rubbish. I was promptly informed that I was going straight to hell for my heresy.
So, low turn out may also be attributable to the crazies and flakes that also thought that Harry Potter would have all of our children doing magic in the closet. Go figure.
Sam
This movie didn’t appeal to my son, however, he bugged the hell out of me to see “Bee Movie”. My son is pretty young, and I think the Polar Bears in the trailers kind of scared him. Until I read the review on TMB’s website, I really didn’t know what the movie was about. There was a girl – compass – polar bears, but what was the movie about? Was this movie based on a book? Was the book a best seller?