The Golden Compass’ massive budget of around $250 million means that it needs to succeed, and succeed big, at the box office. Unfortunately for New Line – and for fans hoping for sequels – the movie appears to be floundering somewhat at the American box-office. Whilst it has taken the number one spot, over this weekend, the film took in just $27 million. Last week, New Line said they were hoping for between $30 and $40 million.
For reference, Slashfilm give this comparison with other fantasy films’ opening weekends:
Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire – $102.6M
& the Prisoner of Azkaban – $93.6M
& the Sorcerer’s Stone – $90.2M 
& the Chamber of Secrets – $88.3M
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – $72.6M
The Chronicles of Narnia – $65.5M
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – $62M
The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring – $47.2M
The Golden Compass – $27M (estimate)
Eragon – $23.2M
Bridge to Terabithia – $22.5M
Stardust – $9.1M opening
Whilst Harry Potter is in a league of its own, that The Golden Compass came in nowhere near even the first Lord of the Rings and made just $4 million more than Eragon is worrying. Indeed, Slashfilm call the numbers a “disaster”. Cinematical say it has “crashed and burned”, writing that “with muted buzz at best, expect Golden’s numbers to plummet next weekend, especially with a new crowd of pre-Christmas contenders packing in, and total domestic box office to top out at around $80 million. Ouch.”
Industry blogger Nikki Finke calls it a “bomb” and a “flop”, citing also low per screen averages. Paul Dergarabedian at Media By Numbers, a tracking firm, says “It’s below expectations, but it’s not an out-and-out debacle.” News agency Reuters’ headline on the matter is “Golden Compass disappoints at Box Office”.
“It’s a little bit disappointing,” said Rolf Mittweg, president and chief operating officer of New Line’s worldwide distribution and marketing operations. The Guardian reports Mittweg as saying exit polls were favourable and that he was hoping word of mouth would help the film in coming weeks, especially with school holidays starting. “It’s all about longevity,” Mittweg said.
The film’s producer, Deborah Forte, was asked the the premiere’s press conference what level of gross The Golden Compass needed to take at the box office in order for the sequels to get the go-ahead. She was not best-pleased at the question and answered that New Line would be taking into consideration worldwide takings. There, the film may be faring better.
Variety say it has “taken Europe by storm”. 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. Mittner says proceeds from those sales have covered about 60 percent of the film’s budget. Taking into account outside investors and tax breaks, he said New Line was covered for about 70 to 80 percent of the budget, and the film would be profitable for the studio.
These will be a worrying few days for New Line and Chris Weitz regardless.
It’s doing very well WW actually…
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117977310.html?categoryid=13&cs=1
Also, I’ve seen the number $180 million thrown around quite a bit now so it’s possible that’s what New Line is saying the “official” budget is.
Yeah, $180 is the ‘official’ budget.
I’ve added that Variety article to the post; it’s a more concise source.
well what do they expect….to most fans the movie was a disappointment.
New Line seems to stay positive on the subject:”We were hoping for a little better domestically, but the international numbers were solid,” said Rolf Mittweg, New Line’s president and chief operating officer of worldwide distribution and marketing.
I read somewhere that on opening weekend that Hollywood executives spend most of it waiting to throw up by Monday morning, if the numbers aren’t good.
The movie’s gotten good reviews and middling reviews and poor reviews, but we’re talking three days here, so far, and the movie’s still got a long way to go, both in the US and worldwide.
For the record, I think the movie could have used another 15 minutes to explain a bit more about daemons, the alethiometer, and esp. Dust, but other than that, I found a lot to like and indeed admire about the film.
Watching the BO on late Sunday and worrying about it is like worrying about a football game in the first quarter, when there’s three more to go … and a whole season and playoffs to follow. In other words, let’s show a little faith here, guys, and let’s let Chris and the folks at New Line know that we appreciate their huge investment of time and money and effort, and do what we can to share our enthusiasm (as has Philip Pullman) with others, because we’d all like to see THE SUBTLE KNIFE and THE AMBER SPYGLASS, and other Pullman adaptations on the screen.
At the movie theater I went to, people cheered when Iorek won the fight with the false bear King, and cheered again and clapped loudly when the film ended. So I think there’s a large, mainstream audience out there that will give it a chance. So let’s look long-term on this one and see what the final numbers are in, say, January after it’s had its principal run.
Optimistically Yours,
George Beahm
🙁
Anyone know how much they maid off the sneak preview?
Actually, if you take a look at the Guardian article here, http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7139567, it looks pretty optimistic for New Line and the sequels since they have already recouped 80% of their budget by selling rights and using tax breaks.
Also, didn’t Deborah Forte already say during the Cannes press conference that they were going to make the sequels?
(http://www.bridgetothestars.net/news/press-conference-report-images/)
that’s a good question, “truth”, … do they even consider the amount of money they made off sneak previews? obviously, lots of fans must have gone that day as well as general audiences.
And yet it was still at the top of the list for most viewed movie this past weekend. You also have to remember that its coming at a point where children are still in school and college students have finals. I had to travel all the way home in order to see it on opening weekend, and this is in the middle of finals. And i know most of my friends that are fans couldn’t even make it because of their workload. So my guess is taht its going to pick up speed as the week goes along. Plus, i’m telling everyone to go see it. i think they did a very good job with what they had to work with.
For what it is worth, in San Francisco California, the movie was more or less sold out on opening day. There is only one multiplex showing TGC and the gate attendant told me the first few shows sold out as early as Wednesday. I was barely able to snatch a ticket for myself for a completely packed 10 PM show. I felt somewhat bad for the late comers or others who decided they wanted popcorn because all the decent seats were gone more than half an hour before the trailers started.
More than a few expressed vocal enthusiasm when the trailers were done and the words “Feature Presentation” graced the screen before Eva Green began the voice over. Based on what I’ve seen with my own eyes, I’m curious: How many screens did TGC open with and how does it compare with those other fantasy epics which were cited? If other screenings were as packed as the one I attended, I think the movie is doing very healthy.
wow, why is btts.net having such a negative comment about it? i mean, where is the optimism, smile a little! it far from flopped, and this is a huge exaggeration.
Well I’m not as optimistic as others–if you bring up rottentomatoes.com’s list of reviews it has really tanked, with a lot fewer glowing reviews than horrid ones. The good reviews also seem to talk a lot about it being a great fun fantasy flick (as in, who cares it’s just simple-minded) and the bad reviews tear it apart for not going into anything controversial. The review in my paper said “Tickle me Elmo is more subversive” and gave it only 1.5 stars. I almost think that the bad reviews are going for the jugular in their negativity–like the negative remarks are just over the top and mean. I notice that a lot of people are just ripping into Weitz and as far as I can tell he did what he could do, but the studio if anyone is at fault for keeping the controversial material out.
I honestly can’t believe that films 2 and 3 will be made with all the important elements (the REAL dark materials) intact, no matter what their box office returns are, so while I hope good things for Weitz and Pullman, I could care less if that studio shuts down due to lack of returns. They did it to themselves by in effect censoring the material to pander to the masses.
There were 8 people at the showing I went to. Although it was a 9:10 showing on a Sunday night. Not that college kids don’t stay up and out late on a school night, but as somebody said, they may have had to study for finals (which I actually have to do, as well). And the fact that the theater is fairly new may have a little to do with it.
As for my opinion of the movie, I think the pacing was a little too hurried, but I suppose they had to rush some things in order to fit everything in. They really could’ve made a separate movie for each section of the book. Or at least of half the book.
They did leave out a lot of things, but I don’t think it hurt it too bad. They were mostly (and I say, mostly) things that perhaps only fans of the books would care about, but still. And it definitely wasn’t as horrible as Eragon, which left out main characters and key plot points which drove the story. The people who made that movie are idiots.
I’m holding to my belief that if New Line hadn’t of tried to make this the ~Next LOTR~ then it might of fared better.
Well, I couldn’t get my significant other to see ANY movie with me this weekend because he has finals (and he is a huge movie buff, moreso than me). So there might be something about that…
fell like an idiot for amending my first comment, but there was only one multiplex in San Francisco from which tickets were available *online*. Also must agree with those who insightfully noted that a great many of the potential audience are busy with school right around this time of the year.
I also believe that any potential director’s cut will bring a more “rounded” feel to the movie as a whole. Even at ~2 hours, certain parts feel rushed and truncated. But anyone who has been paying attention should have noticed that much more has been shot than has been shown. And I’m not just talking about the real ending from the book. For example, in one of the featurette/behind-the-scene clips, we observe a few seconds from after the battle at Bolvanger where the past relationship between Farder Coram and Serafina Pekkala is obviously played out as the witch promises the Gyptian to protect Lyra.
I dragged about fifteen of my friends to the film with me. They really liked it but had a few criticisms, all to be expected — most hadn’t read the books (those of us who had were basically delirious with expectation when the credits rolled). If we want Subtle Knife to get greenlighted, then we ALL have to be getting our friends to go see the movie — I might even organize a second trip. Come on, guys! Break some records! Make week 2 bigger than week 1! Keep this thing going!
Maybe there is still some hope… check this out guys:
“Despite Compass’s lackluster opening, Mittweg [of New Line Cinema] says a franchise isn’t out of the question. ‘There are always plans to do sequels,’ he says. ‘We just have to figure out how to do them.’ ”
http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2007-12-09-box-office_N.htm
(see last line of article)
I REALLY HOPE that this is NOT the end for the Subtle Knife and Amber Spyglass!!
I also think it’s much to early to say whether or not TGC has tanked. That seems to be such an overstatement to me. Anyway, a random observation from my part is that Rottentomatoes features ONLY english-language reviews (for good reason to) – but my point is, that however precise their review aggregator is, they are not representative of a worldwide overall grading but only American (and maybe English, I don’t know)
My point is, that word of mouth in Europe is extremely good to say the least. Especially when compared to the USA.
Too early to tell. Internationally the movie has grossed 55 million $ for a total of 86 million $ as of December 9th. They will make their money back but will it be enough to inspire a venture into 2 more controversial movies ?
I think NLC made a mistake throwing so much money into a film-adaption and than change so much from the book. I loved the film, but with that much money, it should have been possible to make a 3 hour movie, with very little changes.
I say, lets give Chris Weitz a big hand, for his work was damn good, and let us turn over anger against capitalism in it’s worst form New Line Cinema.
But fans, cross your fingers for seqeuls!
hmm, worldwide grosses are helping me keep my optimism.
I just can’t imagine how the New Line execs feel if I’m this distraught over it though. They CAN’T not make the next two films… mew.
At least it didn’t flop more than Eragon… now THAT would have been a total embarassment.
Although I hadn’t realized Stardust, a great movie made out of an awesome book, had gotten that low. Goes to show that quality =/= box office returns.
“Mittweg also “sort of” confirmed the size of “Compass’ ” production budget, saying that New Line “always mitigates on the downside” via foreign presales. “Once we know more about the final boxoffice tallies, and how they will end up, I think we will decide to embark on the second film””
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/international/news/e3i58cca3606862e9732d8c1bffd6186e1f
Hmmm, looks like New Line is still determined to make a franchise out of HDM…maybe there’s still hope…
i think what you really have to worry about is studio interference in regards to the sequels, because the studio is dissapointed with the numbers .
that and the fact that both I am legend and Alvin and the chipmunks open next week which means the most TGC can hope for is probably third.
Good Luck!
I’ve seen the movie 3 times this weekend. Here in Russia (St.Petersburg) I noticed good attendance of theaters. And a lot of organised groups of children (school classes with teachers) Some were bored because either too small 2 understand the theory of multiuniverse etc. some not. A lot of cheering 4 Iorek. I think it’s NLC’s fault that they tried 2 please everyone and interfered with Chris’ work.
And finally made a film neither 4 adults nor 4 children. Children were bored because the lack of humour, adults were bored because it wasnt dark, controversial and thought provocing enough.
The intl BO will be all right, but again it’s another of numerous NLC’s faults that they haven’t promoted the film strong enough here (I dont know about other European countries, only CIS. BTW the dubbing here is awful!), maybe they relied 2 much on the USA… Most people here just dont know there’s a book by Pullman etc. they go just 2 see Daniel and Nicole or just 2 see a fairy-tale. Part of me wants NLC 2 bankrupt (and hopefully let Hobbit finally go 2 PJ!!) but another part wants the sequels:)
But what I (and my daemon Nicoleus:) want is 2 see the extended cut of REAl CHRIS WEITZ movie!
What means this “domino effect”?
Firstly a foreign BO smash for GC will not translate into dollars for NLC as they pre-sold the rights to all foreign territories, although amazingly NLC are still talking up
sequels
Film finance is a murky business with pre-sales and a large subsidy from the UK tax payer mitigating much of the cost.
Frankly I don’t think CW has much to be ashamed of. He has brought in a perfectly decent family movie.
My feeling is that, whilst CW has proved himself to be a much better director than, say, About a Boy would suggest (a movie I particularly disliked), his political skills in managing the relationship with the studio is what seems to be lacking.
Clearly by employing a relatively inexperienced director NLC felt it would be easier to have control over the final product. And so it proved, with massive re-edits and changes at the last moment, presumably at the behest of the producers. The biggest being the removal of the last scenes of the third act.
At the end of the day CW’s motivation should have been to preserve the arc of the story against studio interference. I guess that this was his intention, but given the ending, it seems his political skills weren’t up to it.
Having said that I took two 11 year olds to see it over the weekend and they were unanimous in saying that it was “fantastic!”. Let’s face it, you could get no better review from the movie’s target demographic.
hey
i just saw it! Wow
But then i saw the box office results…
Its USA box office and a huge factor is of course the christians and other religous groups but also most haven’t read the books like Europe!!
I see it as its a waste of time removing the religous stuff coz even if you do they still WONT WATCH IT!!!! like we can see
Nt one of my friends are allowed to see it which sucks!!
I see hope coz its the fisrt week, they probably didnt even add the sneak preview money, and like the previous comments their are finals coming up!!!
NLC must get a life and stop comparing it to LOTR cause it is completly different! They are expecting alot from the film, too much infact! They had a HUGE budget so why not a longer film- they spent alot on scenes to later edit most of them.
NLC is like the magisterium and chris is like Asriel. The Mag. is capturing and controlling the world while chris wants to do something else but they dont let him!!
I defiantly will do wat eva it takes for sequels and hopefully us fans can save it!! its not a flop it just missed expectations but next wk it wont!!!
It did better in the UK because here there is no Bill Donohue’s and Catholc League’s to poison peoples minds with their censorship.
HEY! NEW LINE! GET WITH THE PROGRAM, HUH? DOING ANYTHING THAT COULD RESULT IN MESSING UP ANYTHING TO DO WITH HDM IS A CRIME! Yeah, a CRIME!
Cuz it SHOULD be!
That’s all I’ll say for now, because actually, I’m still hopeful for sequels, and I’m just mad at New Line.
The budget is 180 millions not 250, and Nikki Finke is the same journalist who said that Warner Bros should not do anymore movies with women. I don’t care…
Worldwide result is 80 million and 27 million in the first week-end is good, not great, but non bad.
the figures so far dont look good, but i’m looking at this a different way. The HDM box set is at #9 on Play.com, and #4 on amazon on the bestsellers lists, and we already heard last week book sales have gone up by 500% in the past 3 months due to publicity. at waterstones the books are only at 16, but are featured on their front page as books of the week. so yeah the movie may not be doing great, but the books certainly are, i dont know bout you guys but thats even better news that if the film had done well.
Matt, pre-selling (while maybe not the greatest idea in retrospect) has apparently paid off a huge part of the budget leaving much less to be paid off from what they get domestically.
Just saw this article linked at hdm.org:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7139567
“But Mittweg said New Line sold off the foreign rights, with proceeds covering about 60 percent of the film’s budget. Taking into account outside investors and tax breaks, he said New Line was covered for about 70 to 80 percent of the budget, and the film would be profitable for the studio.”
Whoa…well guess it’s not as bad as I thought…!
This movie gave off flop sweat the moment I saw the teaser poster several months ago, which looked bland and generic, like the studio didn’t even understand its own product.
My cousin (who hadn’t read the books) saw the trailer for this on TV and said he thought Iorek looked like the Coca Cola polar bear. Not a good sign.
And as far as them changing the ending of the movie and not even showing the last chapters of the book… well that severely hurt my own enthusiasm for seeing it. I went, but felt disappointed before I even went in.
We’re dying to see it, but we won’t be until the Christmas holidays. It will be the whole family going, not just a couple of us. I didn’t even see the LOTR stuff on opening days, we’re a busy family this time of year. I’ve never understood this opening day obssession of the studios.
Folksy “Not one of my friends are allowed to see it which sucks!!”
Not allowed ? What is it porn ? Where do you live ?
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to see it, and there were going to be 3 of us going. Hopefully we’ll see it next weekend. A friend saw it and really loved it, but he hadn’t read the books.
I would imagine kids being in school–those kids whose parents will let them see it–and young adults taking finals–will all be able to see it in the next couple of weeks.
And hey, if garbage like Resident Evil (based on a video game) can spawn multiple sequels, surely HDM can. I mean, it’s been #6 for the trilogy selling on Amazon. That’s nothing to shake a stick at!
I do hope the sequels get made, there’s so much more to show and tell.
Thanks, foulksy! I LOVED ur comparing of NLC to Magisterium and Chris to Asriel! Its just so true! LOTR will be my #1 forever, but why try 2 make the same, HDM is just so interesting piece on its own. There’s still hope. All that I talked to after the movie wanted 2 read the books and loved Dakota. Why waste such a talent!
Bloop
the reason why my friends were not aloowed to watch it coz parents sent emails around telling them about how bad it is. They only mentioned the bad stuff (plan to overpower the authority)and no good stuff (the film is religous free) so their parents band them from watching it!!!
Does it matter???? (your last question)
lol, lol, lol .
makes sense .
rubbish film .
they shuda spent longer on it, and perhaps listened to the fans who know EXACTLY wahts wrong wi it
i speak not only for myself wehn i say I CUDA DONE IT BETTER
i swear any of the other fans cud ahve
so anyway
………heres hoping they dont make the next two . 🙂
even at the odeon ther wasnt very many people .. urghhhh xx
Foulsksy –
“Bloop
the reason why my friends were not aloowed to watch it coz parents sent emails around telling them about how bad it is. They only mentioned the bad stuff (plan to overpower the authority)and no good stuff (the film is religous free) so their parents band them from watching it!!!
Does it matter???? (your last question)”
Not allowed makes me wonder if you’re in the Sadan, or Texas or something….
I’m taking my 10 year old daughter, and most parents I know are looking forward to it and taking their kids over the holidays. We seem to live in somewhat differant enviroments.
This is about what I expected. I was surprised the movie wasn’t the smash-hit they were going for…but then I saw it, and I get the picture (no pun intended ^_^). It wasn’t as amazing-awesome-incredible as I was hoping for, but it was a good movie.
I don’t think U.S. religious groups have much to do with it, though (a few people mentioned them). I’m a Christian, and I happen to love the series, so I’m connected to both fronts… yeah, no real impact that I can see.
I pooched up. I mean Sudan. Not Sadan.
Bad stuff is overthrowing the Authority ? That is the good stuff !
I saw it on opening night in a theater in Arkansas, and the seats were about three-quarters full. That’s not as much as I expected for such a big-budget movie, but there really weren’t that many people at the theater in general (it was a cold, rainy, foggy night). I’m planning on seeing it again in theaters, possibly with family over the holidays.
I still think there might be hope for The Subtle Knife. I just hope The Golden Compass is doing better other places, than it is here in Texas. Almost no one here is aloud to watch the film or read the books, and I’m really getting sick of people giving me odd looks when I say that I like them!
I’ve been off the cuff, and kinda hard in my phrasing, and I appologize.
This has really touched me Ardea , when you said “o one here is aloud to watch the film or read the books” – are you high school aged or abouts ? This is parents and teachers giving the nasty looks ?
I’m in Canada and dropped into a bookstore to grab a copy of the book for a friend. The guys behind the counter ( late teens ) were talking about the books ( having read them, would again, going to see the movie ) – and when I gave the book to my friend, other’s saying things like, ” Oh I’ve heard those are really good. I want to see the movie.”
I’m saddened that what I feared ( but couldn’t really imagine happening ) – did. That this has become a real issue for some people.
I know exactly what they could have done to make the film interesting to more people, which is to tell the story the way it originally was and not to compromise any of it’s spiritual value for fear of riling up the right-wing American attack machine.
If you ask me, New Line and everyone in charge of this production shot themselves in the foot doing what they did to this movie. I am not surprised.
Had this film dared to take on the organized religion-as-dogma principle as well as more fully explored the biblical and miltonic aspects of the book, I think the movie would have been wildly successful culturally and monetarily.
That I have not yet been to see it and have been obsessed with these books for years I think says something about the way the movie was formed and marketed.
New Line was not directing this movie at Golden Compass fans. It was directing the movie at a “market” that they though existed, which really does not.
The “market” is people who want to see something that interests them, and New Line has failed to arouse the public interest with this movie.
Bloop, I am high school aged, and yes sometimes it is the parents giving me nasty looks-, but other teenagers do as well. The part of Texas where I live is very religious and I have to put up with this sort of thing all the time. I wish I lived in Canada or Britain. But luckily it’s not like this everywhere in the USA, and some people in Texas can think for themselves instead of taking in everything they’re told without a second thought.
I just hope the movies do well. It will make me feel so much better if they make the next two films. Even if they are a bit watered down, it will still be better than nothing.
OK I’m going to put a rather broad theory into play.
Let’s say 60-80 percent of a budget at or around $250 million was covered by foreign sales and outside investors/tax cuts. If so than the $80 million or so it made worldwide over the weekend has covered the budget and now marketing is left, which is apparently another $60 million. If the film’s final tally at the box office worldwide is around $300 million then New Line has a profit of around $150 million, which is at least enough for the production budget on TSK (They could probably even shoot it for less).
So really, New Line will make some number of profit on the film if what they say about foreign rights is true.
I also wouldn’t be surprised if they only sold the rights for TGC, thus they make even more selling the rights for TSK , at least.