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.
I really hope they don’t castrate the religious elements if they make TSK and TAS.
Ardea, thanks for the quick response. At least you know that everyone and everywhere isn’t frowning at you.
I’m really looking forward to seeing it, and like you, want to see the next 2 as well. I’ve a got a feeling we’ve got a Ratatoulle on our hands, where the greater hit comes from Europe. Of course book sales have gone through the roof everywere. I was seeing the boxed set in many carts in Costco last week.
I wonder if the Catholic organization’s little boycott is actually part of this? I mean, there seems to be no mention on that.
I believe that part of it is that midterms are coming out for about everyone grade six and up, and with the film rated PG13 that basically takes out a good number. I managed to catch it the sneak preview day, and I wanted to see it again, but I was busy studying for the overload of quizzes and such that week.
I’ll try and see it again, but truthfully I don’t mind what the numbers are here, as long as they make the Subtle Knife. I think that they actually did a great adaptation here, and I’m naturally curious about the next.
-shrugs- I’m just another fan. I don’t know much.
Well, well these guys think TSK will get the green light…
we’ll see!
I don’t know. I mean, like a lot of you, I’ve been following the production of this film since the very beginning, and I had really high hopes for it. In many ways I WAS very impressed, but there were quite a few things in this film that really disappointed me, and for most critics and fans that’s all it takes to make a film a flop. Dedicated movie-goers who read film reviews all the time may not feel motivated to go see it, whether or not they’ve read the books. And there’s also the type of fan who will refuse to see the movie when they’re so in love with the book. I would have to say that this movie is on very shaky ground.
Ooops, I meant
these guys
“http://www.nationalpost.com/rss/story.html?id=158690
think TSK will get the green light…
we’ll see!
Guys, the movie is really doin’ well here in Asia!!! I attended an afternoon matinee (1st day of release-Wed)and the theatre was two-thirds full; they even added one screen the day after…..remember the majority of revenue (movies) now comes from the foreign box office!!!!
When do you think we can expect an answer about the sequels? I think Weitz said in an interview that if the studio decided to make TSK they would have to start pre-production right away. I hope they can let us know before the New Year.
I discovered on the RT website that the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops actually approved this movie for viewing by adults and adolescents (which basically matches the rating of PG-13). In the review they encouraged parents rather than forbidding their teens to see it, to discuss the thorny philosophical subjects with them afterwards. As a Catholic, it is good to see a Catholic organization that understands the fact that suppressing other opinions is not the answer. The link on their website is not working right now (it was yesterday) but you can see more info about it on the IMDB page for the movie.
At the same time, I recently discovered that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia (the one I live in), was sending out letters to all the Catholic schools telling them to warn parents not to take their kids to see this movie 🙁 It made me furious.
Weekend actuals – slightly lower than expected at $25.8 million.
Stateside, the past week was the least attended for early December in 13 years.
http://boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=2431&p=.htm
there’s no question it’ll get its money back… I mean Eragon got 248 M. total in the end. I’m optimistic… everyone should support this film if they want a sequel! I’ll be so pissed if I don’t see that footage!!
Anyway… I’m thinking it will be okay. It really isn’t THAT bad. Just a little disappointing, but HELL it’s only 3 M. off!
If they don’t make the sequels, I will cry. Therefore I will continue to watch the Golden Compass just to get those numbers up!
The Golden Compass is number one in 15 countries. Check it out below:
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/intl/
I sure hope they don’t make a 2nd film anyways, it’s impossible to redeem itself. I felt like crying, it was abhorrently bad. And I can’t wait until I get out of (or well actually start)film school and have a go at it myself, I just hope the opportunity arises, I know I could do a better adaptation, even with the skills I have now. Chris Weitz is a hack, Hollywood is corrupt, I’ve already started planning, and I don’t think money should even be an issue in filmmaking, it’s art, but the bloody producers have to make a ruin of that now don’t they!
I do not know about the fate of the movies but talk about success for the books. Just check out any online bookstore (e.g.amazon.com) and you’d see the trilogy firmly planted in the top 10 or even top 5 depending of the day. The audiobooks on itunes are even more impressive: The Golden Compass is at number 1 and The Subtle Knife is at number 5.
In my opinion this is a good sum for a film that was based on a book that is not as well known as Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings here in the United States. I actually loved the movie and I’m going to go see it again!
Blah! Needed better actors, needed a better plot. Computer graphics suck. Trying to appeal to adult audiences, while using non-realistic, child appealing computer graphics. It deserves to bomb! Instead, watch a rerun of any of the Lord of the Ring movies.
Movie was a sell out to Hollywood from word go.
How can you expect something to sell when you take
the main line of the story out.
Not to mention the animation was mediocre. Half the actors characters weren’t right. Iorek looked like a cross between an over grown teddy and a dog.
An they don’t even name it correctly in the authors home country.
What amazed me was the number of people that hyped it…
It was a bit like the first Harry Potter film, in the way it was made, it looks cheap, and Hollywood.
Lord of the Rings looks like a well made film, as do the later Harry Potters (4 esp)
I hope this is a turn around point, maybe if they make the sequels they’ll put some thought and Intention into the story.
Oh man:
1. NEW – I Am Legend (Warner Bros) – $28,350,000, $7,862 PTA – [$28,350,000 cume]
2. NEW – Alvin & the Chipmunks (Fox) – $13,250,000, $3,813 PTA – [$13,250,000 cume ]
3. The Golden Compass (New Line)  $3,050,000, $865 PTA [$34,993,112 cume]
But the market really is bad, I suppose, since the studios were definitely banking on both these movies making more than they did. They are both also rotten on RT, Alvin embarrassingly so.
Ben/Hoobits, sorry but you seem to be very confused about the box-office numbers. Let me clear a few things up.
(Assuming a 250 mill budget)
80% covered by selling foreign rights, tax-breaks, etc.
remaining 40% = 100 million.
approx 50% of film gross goes to theater owners.
so the movie has to make at least $200 million in the US box-office.
DO NOT COUNT FOREIGN BOX-OFFICE because New Line sold the forign rights and thus do not see any more of that money.
Bottom line, unless the U.S. box office ends close to $200m the film will not make a profit.
Everybody agree? Or am I missing something?
One thing I thought was that they couldn’t seem to make up their minds how they wanted to play it. On the one hand, they tried to take out the “controversial” parts, which of course made NO difference whatsoever to the religious fanatics – here in Buffalo they said it made no difference because the movie would point kids to the books, which still have all that bad stuff in them. One priest even told the local paper that just seeing the movie would be a SIN. On the other hand, they made the Magisterium look worse by having Fra Pavel be the one who tried to kill Lord Asriel (presumably because they think Americans are too dumb to understand moral ambiguity), and then they released it TWO WEEKS BEFORE CHRISTMAS, which really got the fundies’ knickers in a twist.
BEN/Hoobits… I know almost nothing about films and profits, but:
1st – The film didnt cost $250M, but $180M, as the firsts posts say.
2st – I dont know for sure, but if NLC sold the foreign rights, it means they wont get any money from overseas, because they sold the foreign rights… so the sequels will depend on the Domestic box office. But of course, that doesnt mean NLC dont pay attention to the foreign numbers.
I’m a Christian myself, and I noticed that some of you cited “censorship” by “religious groups” as a reason for the movie’s box-office floundering. I don’t believe there was any government or private “censorship” of this film. I chose not to see it because the books attack my faith. I made a free personal decision. I also exercised my freedom to inform others of the author’s prejudices, and I did encourage them not to see the movie. I did NOT “censor” the movie, nor did I in any way otherwise inhibit anyone from exercising their free will. The movie flopped because it attacks something that many of us deeply care about. I think it should also be noted here that a comic strip attacking the Muslim faith was recently, widely decried by the world media, so much so that it won’t be shown on U.S. media networks. Now THAT’S censorship. But an attack on Christianity is a-ok? Anyone else uncomfortable with that double-standard? Anyhoo, that’s my two-cents worth. Hope you all had a happy New Year!
to Richard
well if selling the international rights has covered the 80% then us box office needs to reach over the remaining 20% which is 50 milion
Hope this helps
my bad 60% covered so 40% (100 mil) needed
Call Peter Jackson now!!
i love to watch movies that made it to the box office, they are usually great movies with good story “:`
After examine a number of the content on your site these week, and I genuinely like your style of blogging. I added it to my personal favorites web site list and will be looking at back soon.