The Golden Compass Bombed = Myth

Remember when the $180 million dollar film “The Golden Compass” opened a while ago and only took in $25 million domestically? People rushed to call the film a financial bomb (as well as a critical bomb… because the movie just isn’t very good). But the fact of the matter is, that although undeserving, The Golden Compass is going to end up making a hell of a lot of money for the studio.

Yes, at this point, The Golden Compass has only pulled in about $65 million at the North American box office. However, the film has been a smash hit overseas taking in about $234 million for a grand total of over $300 million and counting. It still has to open in a couple of small markets, and then the DVD sales… when all is said and done, The Golden Compass stands to earn the studio over $150 million in profit. What the overseas audience saw in this mediocre at best movie that I didn’t is beyond me… but they saw something, and paid a lot of money to see it.

The good news is that the film was successful. The bad news is, since it was indeed successful, we’re pretty much guaranteed to get the sequel soon, which is a shame, because it’s not worth the effort. Maybe we’ll get lucky and the studio will just count themselves lucky to make such a big profit on the film, realize that a lot of people won’t see the sequel since the first one was so bad, and just forget about the sequel. One can only hope.

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37 thoughts on “The Golden Compass Bombed = Myth

  1. It’s New Line’s fault this wasn’t a bigger success, they made very significant cuts at the last minute and all the controversy…if it had been a better movie it would’ve made a good amount of money.

  2. Ok so what dont you see in it theres action, suspence plot, big name actors, and made you want to watch it again and again this movie was awesome, i dont see how people didnt like it.

  3. We LOVED this movie… saw it in the theater and were blown away by the spectacle, loved the story line, the characters, the animals and the northern landscapes. (Isn’t Nicole Kidman supposed to look creepy-beautiful?) My kids were there, ages 6 and 8, and loved it too, as was my 82 year old immigrant father. We’ve been hoping for a sequel, so this is good news, though I read that they’d sold the foreign rights to finance the production so perhaps that changes the outlook.
    We thought the Narnia movie was bad — boring and static; so go figure. No accounting for tastes, perhaps, or is it that we are ‘European’?

  4. This film’s flaw…rendering all others moot…is the script.

    Period.

    If anyone at the studio peruses online forums, it should be crystal-clear that this was the case. The critiques were consistent: too spare an edit, no time for exposition or character development, too rushed.

    In fact, I’m willing to bet that the DVD release will be an attempt to make amends, and in doing so, test the waters for the subsequent two films: there will be an attached ‘Director’s Cut’, allowing the missing narrative elements (assuming they were shot, and I’m willing to additionally bet they were) to make up for what was lost through the executives-mandated brevity.

    I saw the film twice. Once at a preview…where I was aghast at the shite storytelling…and later, with my mom, who really, really wanted to see it. My reaction the second time was an ‘A-ha!’ process; I can see how the makers got lost in the crafting of the cut in post-production, how they fooled themselves into believing that all was well. (For the record, my mom loved it. And she’s VERY hard to please.)

    So my money (sounds like I’m turning into a betting man) is on the two ‘sequels’ being made.

    (And as for the ‘Christian protest’ aspect? Pure hogwash. Less than a tempest in a tea-pot.)

  5. The controversy had nothing to do with the box office. If a film is good, no amount of controversy can keep audiences away. The movie had two unappealing leads and a meh trailer. I called this when they released the Comic-Con footage. Lemme go find my quote………aha!

    From July 30th, 2007:

    “I LOVE Nicole Kidman, but she is looking creepy as hell lately, and not just in this film. Lay off the Botox, babe.

    And this movie looks a bit too…I’m trying to find the right word….heavy? adult? for the kiddie crowd. I can see little ones falling asleep on this thing or kicking the chairs in the theater with those damn light-up shoes. I don’t know. It looks interesting, but I’m not completely sold yet.”

    And I’ll bet I wasn’t the only one who thought this. If I hadn’t been invited to a screening by a friend, I wouldn’t have gone to see this thing at all. It was too adult to be called a kiddie movie, yet the story wasn’t cultivated enough to be taken seriously as an adult movie.

  6. When Newline sells the international distribution rights, they normally require a minimum garuantee, that pays for the distribution rights. Any revenue made above that excl. marketing costs that is shared 50/50. So yes Newline will most likely make a very nice profit. Then are the other issues, like when the movie is part of a package deal. Then you can forget about trying to calculate anything, because the whole slate of movies can influence the price/profitability.

  7. Too many people think of things as either/or. How about “and”? The film bombed domestically because of a compounding of factors already mentioned: Poor/too little marketing, the public’s unfamiliarity with the source material, little word of mouth, mixed to bad reviews, and the boycott. (The difference between “Da Vinci Code” and “The Golden Compass” is that Christians saw the former as an adults’ movie with heretical themes, which they could handle, but the latter as a movie covertly trying to sell atheism to their children, an idea that horrified them.)

    One thing everyone should know is that it’s New Line, not the director, who is responsible for the film’s incoherence. This is evidenced by comparing Chris Weitz’ original script with the final cut. The studio re-ordered the scenes, cut out major footage and plotlines, and chopped off the end altogether. The Golden Compass video game includes cut footage that gives an idea of what the movie might have looked like had the studio not hacked it to bits. More information can be found here:

    http://www.hisdarkmaterials.org/news/the-golden-compass/what-about-the-directors-cut

    Hopefully there will be a director’s cut DVD so we can see Weitz’ vision untouched by the studio hacks. The DVD will probably push the movie into the black, if it isn’t there already.

    The sequels will be less expensive because they’ll be working from CGI libraries they created for the first film. Also, the cast and crew’s pay will be less because there will be no initial signing fee like for the first movie.

  8. The truth is most fantasy movies make a lot of money outside US. Even Uwe Boll bragged about how his last movie was kinda well received in Europe. Unfortunately there are a lot of people around the world who enjoy empty stories with pretty fireworks.

  9. I hope they make the next 2 books, because I did like the Golden Compass movie (I have never read the Golden Compass books).

    The story was solid, I liked the action and the pacing, and it actually created characters that I cared about and knew who each character was when they came on the screen (Too many characters in LoTR had the exact same names and looked similar, not that I am comparing this movie to LotR, just explaining the point).

    The Little Girl did a solid job, unlike the 4 Jake Lloyds in that damn Narnia POS (I still want my life back from watching that steaming pile of crap), and I did read all 7 of the Narnia books.

    I initially didn’t want to see the movie at all, but got dragged there by my wife, and it turned out to be a pleasant surprise. It seems to me, that too many people are bashing the movie, because it is what the “cool kids”
    are doing. The movie wasn’t as good as Lord of the Rings, but it wasn’t as bad as Narnia either.

  10. Despite making 300 worldwide, I’m not too sure that GC is currently in the black,(going by the old Absolute Profit Formula). Assuming half of the worldwide gross goes back to the exhibiting theaters and then subtracting the production and marketing budgets, Golden Compass is still in the deep in the red.

  11. So…God nutters made THE DA VINCI CODE a flop in the US? OH…THAT’S RIGHT! That film made $217 million domestically!

    Please…GOLDEN COMPASS flopped because they did a horrible job with the ad campaign in the states.

  12. I said it did bad in the states because of the God nutters , doing ok in the rest of the world ,you do understand that there are other places on this planet other than US i hope ?

  13. the only proof needed that it is in fact a turkey will be when no sequel is announced. there will not be a sequel.

    it’s been well known that its poor performance and budget problems almost cost shaye his job.

    put it this way if you think new line are happy with how it did you are crazy.

  14. thats right filmnerd….weitz himself has commented on the film goin over budget. he admitted it cvost north of 250 million.

    plus new line sell off the foreign distribution … that is the way they work as they don’t distribute worldwide themselves so they are not actually seeing any of that ww gross.

    its bomb john.

  15. The fact that they had sneak previews in some 500-700 screens a week before the opening was also a sign of trouble. New Line knew they had an expensive turkey…and little to no interest.

    Oh and interestingly, Christ Weitz said on CHUD that the budget for GOLDEN COMPASS was actually north of $250 million(!)

  16. And yes, New Line sold the over seas ditribution rights, just like they did for Lord Of The Rings… and they made a TON off that, plus a percentage, plus DVD sales. They are in the Black with this film (unfortunately). And whatever way the pie got split… it’s still a $300 million dollar pie that New Line is in control of for future development.

    People can try to spin this anyway they want to make it look like a doomsday scenario for New Line, but the fact is when all is said and done, they made money off this movie.

  17. So far no one has come up with a decent fantasy series to follow up LOTR, which of course is understandable. It’s a very tough act to follow.
    But hey, they look like there not even trying.
    I haven’t seen the Narnia movie (which did at least enough business to spawn a sequel), but I have seen ERAGON and THE GOLDEN COMPASS and they are both awful, horrible movies. What were they even thinking? No wonder that shit bombed hard.

  18. Hey guys,

    Whoa whoa whoa…. “The reason it did bad was because of Christians”!?!?! Not a chance. If that were the case no R rated film would ever make over $100 million.

    Christianity had ZERO to do with the domestic low results of Golden Compass. As a matter of fact, the “controversy” (it was fake) was used by the studios to try to get attention for the film, since NO ONE was talking about it and was getting next to no buzz prior to its release.

  19. I thought it was a great looking film and better than i expected , it failed in the US because of the God nutters .If there is a another one just need a better Director .

  20. The reason GOLDEN COMPASS flopped in the US was mostly due to its shitty ad campaign and promises to be “the next LORD OF THE RINGS!” You make a claim like THAT, and you’d Goddamn better live up to it. Not to mention, there was nothing that really “grabbed” audiences. All they basically had to offer from the trailers/TV spots was talking polar bears, a bearded James Bond and…Nicole Kidman. No thanks.

    That…and US audiences just aren’t that aware of HIS DARK MATERIALS book series. It’s not like LOTR, POTTER or NARNIA where they had huge fanbases and damn near everyone knew about them (in one form of another!)

    The boycott didn’t have nearly the impact that some people want to claim. Remember non-controvesial fantasy films ERAGON and THE DARK IS RISING also flopped. People simply don’t want to sit through terribly-made fantasy films.

  21. The reason why it did crap in the US isn’t because it’s a bad film (from what I understand it isn’t that bad, just very mediocre, though I must admit I haven’t seen it) it’s because there are way too many fundamentalist Christians in the US.

    They should never have bothered cutting the athiest balls off the story in the first place: this was bound to happen.

  22. Actually John, New Line don’t see a dime from the money made overseas. They sold the distribution rights and only make money from US box office.

    So it IS a massive flop for them.

  23. WELL to my knowledge its a childs movie……so if your not a child then buzz off…..u think wall street execs. are trying to go see this or the chipmunks….no children are….i showed this mvie to m neighbors 2 kids and they loved it….so wtf is the point of a pregnant 45 year old wife saying she doesnt like under siege…..it doesnt matter the movies was not made for her…..get the fuck over the movie sucking it was made for children….and if u give a child something shiny they will love u eternally.

  24. I loved all three books and was very dissapointed with the movie adaption of the Golden Compass.

    The other two books in the series do make sense but given what a mess they made of the first one (the easiest of the three to make (storyline wise)) i’m not quite as keen on seeing the other two which is a huge shame.

  25. The next two books were a complete mess as far as a coherent storyline. The first book was the only one that would have made a decent movie, if you know, they had actually made a decent movie out of it.

    Overall, the whole series and the movie is lame.

  26. Not so sure a sequel is such a “sure-thing” at this point. If you’ll remember, New Line said if this goes over well; they’ll just go ahead and film the remaining 2 HIS DARK MATERIALS books back-to-back (a la PIRATES sequels, MATRIX sequels, BACK TO THE FUTURE sequels, etc.)

    The problem with doing THAT is GOLDEN COMPASS did fucking horrible in the U.S. I realize the foriegn markets have alot more clout in terms of box-office than the U.S. But…I’m not so certain we’ll even see the remaining 2 MATERIALS adaptations see the light of day…

  27. It’s still a bomb John.

    I believe New Line won’t see much of the worldwide gross because they sold off the distribution rights to fund the picture.

    “In the UK, the film took $3.1 million in the first two days, beating Narnia’s record. With little competition, French, Spanish and German takings are also very good.

    This does not translate into money for New Line however – the studio sold off foreign distribution rights before the film was released.”

    Those sales were said to cover 60% of the budget, and other financial investors meant New Line were covered for 80%.

    That means the domestic taking needed to be above 20% of the total budget… which is around $45 million.

    The Golden Compass is currently on $67 million domestic.

    $20 million profit so far? Not enough to even bother with any more, not after so-so reviews.

    Full article on the matter here

    http://www.bridgetothestars.net/news/box-office-numbers/comment-page-2/

  28. I think in general America is still a bit dominated the weird Christian sects who just don’t exist in any power outside the US. So the idea of a film arguing for Aethism sounded very appealing, or at least it did to me, who dragged along a couple of friends to see it. I nearly fell asleep during this horrid mess of a movie…

  29. My god, the GOLDEN COMPASS is a horrible mess.
    I didn’t have to pay to see it, but believe me, if I had I would be pissed.
    No way in hell will I watch a sequel if I don’t have to.
    I guess people fell for the big names and the good trailers.

  30. I havent seen the film, so cant comment on how bad it is. But in the UK, there was a huge advertising campaign for this movie, bigger than any campaign I’ve seen in along time, eveywhere this move was being hailed and advertised, if the campaign was like this in other regions of the world I’m not suprised it has made so much – add to the fact that other movie offerings over the festive period were pretty pathetic outside of the USA (the only new flick we got over here over christmas was I am legend, no sweeny, no AvP, no treasure, no Juno the list goes on) so I think it made alot overseas because of the campaign and because there was nothing else to watch.

  31. It’s like Troy a little bit over 3 years ago when it bombed in the US ($120 million) but made a shitload of money overseas and ended up with almost $500 million worldwide.

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