Posted on 12/08/2007 11:24:02 PM PST by DesScorp
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "The Golden Compass," a costly fantasy starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, got off to a slow start at the North American box office and will likely fall short of opening-weekend expectations.
New Line Cinema's $180 million film sold an estimated $8.8 million worth of tickets during its first day in theaters on Friday, according to data issued on Saturday by tracking firm Box Office Mojo (www.boxofficemojo.com).
After Saturday and Sunday sales are factored in, the film will come in at No. 1 with about $28 million when the studios issue their weekend estimates on Sunday, said Paul Dergarabedian at Media By Numbers, another tracking firm.
New Line, a struggling Time Warner Inc unit hoping to launch another franchise along the lines of its blockbuster "Lord of the Rings" series, said last week it was hoping the film would open to between $30 million and $40 million.
"It's below expectations, but it's not an out-and-out debacle," said Dergarabedian.
Conspiring against the movie, he said, were such factors as a soft marketplace and unrealistic expectations for an epic fantasy filling the holiday void left by the "Narnia" and "Lord of the Rings" smashes.
A New Line executive did not return a call seeking comment.
Based on the first book in British author Philip Pullman's acclaimed children's series "His Dark Materials," writer/director Chris Weitz's film is set in an alternate world ruled by an oppressive religious authority. It features talking animals and a heroine played by youngster Dakota Blue Richards.
Even though the film downplays the religious aspect, it has been savaged by such groups as the Catholic League and the U.S. Conference of Bishops. Opponents have cited Pullman's unflattering portrayal of the church and specifically the Catholic faith.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
If you like, you can check out the reviews on rottentomatoes.com and decide for yourself. Like The DaVinci Code, all the controversy smothers the fact that it simply isn’t a very good movie. “A waste of time and money” as one critic put it. Personally I will never see this film because 1) it’s anti-Catholic and 2) I can’t stand Nicole Kidman. But to each their own.
P.S. If I want to see a children’s fantasy with a message I will watch The Dark Crystal or The Neverending Story on DVD.
Interesting. I've not heard about this. In what way is Jackson being cheated?
Yeah, but it would be nice to have some decent new movies to watch.
Saw an advance screening on Dec. 1st.
I have no moral objections to the movie's contents.
However, I do object to the movie's quality. It stunk.
Director tried to cram at least 8 hours of content into 2 hours, emphasized the wrong parts of the book, and created an incoherent mess in the process.
I haven't studied enough of this case to be sure of the methodology, but Hollywood accounting usually involves applying charges for running the company and losses on other movies as costs against the moneymaking movie, artificially reducing the profits so that those paid a percentage of the profits get little or no money.
But isn’t everyone wise to that scam now? Including, one would think, Peter Jackson?
The Hobbit is a children's story, no romance or love whatsoever, just adventures. There may be another movie, based on Tolkien's appendices, covering the time between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Rings, which could be more of the tone of TLOTR.
Oh, he didn’t make the mistake of agreeing to a percentage of the profits, did he? I have nothing to do with the movie industry and even I know that’s dumb. I thought everyone knew you get a percentage of the gross, not the net. The fact that no movie is ever profitable once the accountants have done their thing is an open scandal in Hollywood.
One of my favorite movies of all times. Right after "The Thing" in the "nightmare monster" category.
That's a very interesting fact that it only took 18.6 Million back then. That one was the best of the series, IMHO.
The movie was made for the express purpose of trashing Christianity. The public saw through it. The producers are denying it. What else is new?
What are the odds that the execs at New Line knew nothing about the author’s agenda in his books?
Zilch.
Screw ‘em. Hope this thing tanks.
They may have used other methods for info Google “Peter Jackson” “New Line Cinema” dispute. It appears that New Line sold the subsidiary rights to the movies at reduced prices to other parts of its corporation, thereby reducing what was paid by toymakers, etc., divisions of Time-Warner. Since the profits to New Line were smaller, Jackson’s share was smaller. He was suing for $100,000,000!
Heh, just give "Homo-wood" 10 minutes editing the script...they'll have Frodo running "the wildest bathhouse in all the shire".
That's because it had a first-class cast, a first-class director and a coherent story-line. The CGI laden films of today skimp on all three and pour all the cash into effects, which just become boring after a while. One of the criticisms of Golden Compass is that the story is incoherent, the acting is just so-so and the director is in over his head. The anti-Christian message can't even emerge from the mess, or so I've read.
The success of TLOTR was in part due to the support of Tolkien fans. If New Line tried what you suggest the results from the fans will be like the peasants with the torches scenwe in “Frankenstein”.
I hope he takes them to the cleaners. What a sleazy business.
Hollyweird just doesn’t get it. They think we want to see what they want us to see.
In away that is true, but don’t you think it is unfair not to have many different type of movies out there. What you don’t like someone else may like. I think our complaining is doing more bad than good but who knows. The movie looks boring which is why I would not go. I don’t see crappy movies like Naria either. Not a fanasy movie sorta person. I did see Shut up Chuck last night. Hillarious but not for the kids.
Saw a advertisement for it last evening. Looked like something I might want to go see.
I saw that advertisement too and thought...boring. Go see Good Luck Chuck. You will laugh like crazy.
Sorry the movie is called Good Luck Chuck!
Contrary to other freepers on related threads, of the opinion that generally adults are weak, easily manipulated by media. And if adults are weak, then children are puny. They are not resilient.
This film seems to just be another cooking-a-frog scenario. If they come flat-out anti-Christian, they will face a backlash, especially in the United States. However, if they move gradually in small increments (and especially if they target generally malleable children--just look at the indoctrination of children while in their 'dinosaur phase:' "Dinosaurs lived with humans a few thousand years ago? Idiot Creationists, sane people would state that dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago, and lived for millions of years before that." Why? Because.) so that the populace can become acclimated to more and more anti-'religion,' and soon flat out Atheismization* can commence.
Personally of the view that there can be many Atheists in the United States who can contribute to American society. However, they should not become numerous or powerful enough that they can completely remove the Christian influence from the culture. Although many of them probably do not intend it at all, a purely Atheism-based society will cause a degeneration of the nation--common sense dictates it; there is too much that is relative in Atheist 'ethics', with too little basis for absolute good and evil--it isn't Christian fundamentalist rhetoric. Although it might be from good intentions, Atheism should not be permitted to attain that critical mass, that tipping point which will lead to a society with a extraordinarily weak moral foundation and grounding.
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