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Box Office: No Saturday Miracle Surge For The Golden Compass
/film.com ^ | Sunday, December 9th, 2007 at 3:00 am | Steve Mason

Posted on 12/09/2007 8:39:12 AM PST by keat

There was no Saturday miracle surge for New Line. The Golden Compass, an effects-laden family film starring Nicole Kidman with a reported budget of $200M, received a modest 16% increase from its opening day, posting an estimated $10.2M on Saturday. Assuming a Sunday drop of 33%, Compass will finish its opening weekend with a disastrous $25.84M. (For a comparison to other big budget, family-oriented films in this mold along with details about New Line’s dismal 2007 and Nicole Kidman’s box office cold streak, scroll down to my Friday Night report.)

Disney’s Enchanted blew past $80M domestic with a $4.9M Saturday, and the live action/animation hybrid with a sure-fire Oscar nomination for Amy Adams will cruise to an estimated $10.98M. This Christmas (Sony), Fred Claus (Warner Bros) and Beowulf (Dreamworks/Paramount) have finished 3-4-5 on Saturday and for the 3-day frame.

(Excerpt) Read more at slashfilm.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: antichristian; atheism; boxoffice; boxofficebomb; enchanted; evangelicalatheists; goldencompass; goldenturkeys; pullman; redink; weakfaith
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To: rom
You do seem wholly unqualified on any number of levels (especially since you don't read fiction) to even comment on this topic.

Well, its a good thing you're not in charge of anything. I'll keep on typing, thanks.

101 posted on 12/09/2007 2:21:44 PM PST by GunRunner (Thompson 2008 - Security, Unity, Prosperity)
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To: GunRunner
"Don't see this movie, it's like getting cancer."

I didn't say that, or anything like it.

You need help with your analogies. Perhaps you could start by looking up the word metaphor.

102 posted on 12/09/2007 2:21:51 PM PST by Petronski (Reject the liberal superfecta: huckabee, romney, giuliani, mccain)
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To: GunRunner

“I think your energies would be better spent elsewhere, not to mention the fact that lobbying people to avoid a movie you haven’t seen yourself can be perceived as tactless and arrogant.”

So we should spend our money on products that we don’t like and whose makers are openly hostile to that which we hold most dear???

As long as he’s honest about not seeing I don’t perceive it as tactless or arrogant. I take it as someone speaking out for something they believe in. Seems that only the liberals are allowed to speak out tho.


103 posted on 12/09/2007 2:34:26 PM PST by driftdiver
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To: GunRunner

“This controversy seems a lot like the hubbub over the Harry Potter movies. Anybody that thinks a movie about fighting armored polar bears poses a serious threat to faith should re-examine their own.”

LOL thats funny. It poses a serious threat to our children. It pushes ideas that many Christians find offensive. This movie is about killing God and the polar bears are only there to attract children and soften the message.

Your comment sounds just like the people that say TV doesn’t effect our children. That must be why companies spend millions on advertising.


104 posted on 12/09/2007 2:37:12 PM PST by driftdiver
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To: gridlock
Will a failure of The Golden Compass reform Hollywood? Of course not. But it will be a step in the right direction. In any case, getting the sequels sunk is a good enough result.

The fact that it won't reform Hollywood was my only point. The excitement over this movie's failure reminds me of how worked up conservatives get when they hear a Hollywood actor say something conservative, only to have their heart broken when they hear he's really not (Mel Gibson, Bruce Willis).

You need to treat Hollywood for what it is, and not think that something has been lost nor accomplished when a certain movie succeeds or fails. The fact remains that people who put on makeup and pretend to be people they're not tend to be remarkably liberal, and a very poor indicator of the pulse of the nation.

As for being perceived as tactless and arrogant, I think the opposition to this movie has been remarkably thoughtful and tolerant. People are just educating themselves and others about the content of the source material, and parents are being permitted to make informed decisions.

Perhaps, but to me the whole thing conjures up some of the same attitudes when Bob Dole started lobbying against True Romance and a bunch of other movies he had never seen, and the groups of people who were burning Harry Potter books. However, your politely made points are well taken.

105 posted on 12/09/2007 2:37:27 PM PST by GunRunner (Thompson 2008 - Security, Unity, Prosperity)
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To: MaestroLC

And next year we will have this wonderful film:

http://www.nicholasofmyra-movie.com/


106 posted on 12/09/2007 2:39:59 PM PST by eleni121 ((+ En Touto Nika! By this sign conquer! + Constantine the Great)
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To: Rb ver. 2.0
I find it hard to believe that in your entire life you’ve never made a decision on seeing/not seeing a movie based on third party scuttlebutt, or ever said the phrase, “The reviews said it stinks(or similar adjective)” to another person.

Reviewers are people that have actually seen the movie, and no I can't remember that last time I avoided a movie because of the advice of someone who hasn't seen it.

In fact, the last recommendation I got from a friend was to see a movie called Running Scared with Paul Walker. It was the worst piece of garbage I've ever watched. So I'm unlikely to listen to people who have actually seen the film, much less people who haven't.

107 posted on 12/09/2007 2:41:29 PM PST by GunRunner (Thompson 2008 - Security, Unity, Prosperity)
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To: GunRunner
I think your energies would be better spent elsewhere, not to
mention the fact that lobbying people to avoid a movie you haven't
seen yourself can be perceived as tactless and arrogant.


If "The Golden Compass" ends up being a financial stinker...
Hollyweird will learn. Next time they will know:

1.
Don't put out a film with even diluted atheistic/Anti-God
themes if there is already a book by the same title out with
full-strength atheistic/Anti-God themes.
In the age of the Internet, people can find out what was in the
book and what the author is all about ("killing God" in Pullman's case).

2.
When Nicole Kidman has to publically beg, your film is in REAL trouble.
108 posted on 12/09/2007 2:41:51 PM PST by VOA
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To: GunRunner

“The fact that it won’t reform Hollywood was my only point. The excitement over this movie’s failure reminds me of how worked up conservatives get when they hear a Hollywood actor say something conservative, only to have their heart broken when they hear he’s really not (Mel Gibson, Bruce Willis).”

One movie won’t reform Hollywood but it may reform the studio. It may cause investors to say no instead of yes the next time they get a similar script. At the end of the day they are there to make money. If they can’t make money then theaters won’t waste seats. Without theaters the movies cannot make significant money. A $200 million dollar movie needs a lot of DVD rentals to pay off. Oh and those people who won’t go to the theater probably wont rent the DVD.


109 posted on 12/09/2007 2:43:07 PM PST by driftdiver
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To: keat
Ignore Golden Compass; go see Bella instead.
110 posted on 12/09/2007 2:44:33 PM PST by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: Zechariah11
If you don't like Hillary, don't root against her-- just don't listen.

This is the 2nd dumbest example behind the one that said not caring about how Golden Compass does at the box office is like not rooting against cancer.

111 posted on 12/09/2007 2:48:10 PM PST by GunRunner (Thompson 2008 - Security, Unity, Prosperity)
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To: GunRunner
...not caring about how Golden Compass does at the box office is like not rooting against cancer.

You're just not very smart. But you are very . . . emotional.

112 posted on 12/09/2007 2:49:12 PM PST by Petronski (Reject the liberal superfecta: huckabee, romney, giuliani, mccain)
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To: paudio
HP books/movies, while also have some values that Christians don't agree, were not written intentionally to undermine Christianity.

But oddly, the reaction to this movie seems tamer. To date I haven't seen any protests burning these books.

Maybe this is a sign of more tactful strategy on behalf of Christians since the Harry Potter protests seem to have little effect.

113 posted on 12/09/2007 2:51:17 PM PST by GunRunner (Thompson 2008 - Security, Unity, Prosperity)
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To: driftdiver
As long as he’s honest about not seeing I don’t perceive it as tactless or arrogant. I take it as someone speaking out for something they believe in. Seems that only the liberals are allowed to speak out tho.

First of all, I never said I believed that it makes one tactless and arrogant, but that it can perceived as such. Much like people went after Bob Dole when he started railing against action movies he'd never seen.

I ran into this constantly when people would ask me about Fahrenheit 9/11. Even though I had a laundry list of reasons that the movie was full of lies and propaganda, I found that many people refused to listen to me because I hadn't seen it myself.

I finally broke down and borrowed it from a friend (so I didn't actually have to contribute money to Michael Moore) and watched it so I didn't keep getting the same "you haven't even seen it" excuse.

114 posted on 12/09/2007 2:57:47 PM PST by GunRunner (Thompson 2008 - Security, Unity, Prosperity)
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To: keat

This movie needed to do a $50 million opening to put it in blockbuster territory. One article I saw says the opening weekend estimates are far short of that, at $26 Mil.

For a good family movie, go see “Enchanted”. Very funny in a good-natured way, good for kids and adults, great acting and nothing offensive.


115 posted on 12/09/2007 2:58:47 PM PST by Fish_Keeper
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To: GunRunner

Seriously, you don’t necessarily have to see a movie to know what it’s about. In this case, the film is part one of a proposed trilogy, based on a book series. The author of that book series is a militant atheist who has bragged that his works are designed to kill God in the minds of children. The trilogy begins as a rather typical fantasy story, designed to lure kids in, and then in the third installment they’re informed that God is just a weak fraud and Christianity is a stupid cult designed to keep them from enjoying their sexuality.

This film is probably not particularly offensive by itself. It’s part one, and it isn’t until part two and especially part three that the anti-God storyline blossoms.

Christians have a right to object to this, just as the producers of the film had a right to make it. It’s called “freedom of speech”, unless you ascribe to the Natalie Maines version of the First Amendment, in which she can say whatever she wants and no one has the right to dispute it or boycott her.

Certain things just get old after a while. One of them is the constant bashing of Christianity by “artists” who are too cowardly to criticize Islam. I’ve posted this many times before, but I was appalled when I saw Ron Howard & Dan Brown (”The DaVinci Code”) on TV boasting about what “courage” it took for them to challenge Christianity. It took no courage at all. It would take courage for them to call Islam a fraud and Mohammed a phony, but since both Howard & Brown are in fact cowards, they won’t do it.

And so, these pampered, posturing, preening phonies, who style themselves as iconoclasts, attack Christianity for the umpteenth time. It’s Politically Correct and it doesn’t carry any physicial risk. It does, fortunately, carry some financial risk now that Christians have finally gotten fed up and stopped putting out their hard earned cash for this drivel.


116 posted on 12/09/2007 3:01:12 PM PST by puroresu (Enjoy ASIAN CINEMA? See my Freeper page for recommendations (updated!).)
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To: Petronski
You're just not very smart. But you are very . . . emotional.

Boy you've got my number. I'm so emotional I'm going to cry in the corner.

Calling someone dumb over the web because you don't agree with him is what real men do.

117 posted on 12/09/2007 3:03:05 PM PST by GunRunner (Thompson 2008 - Security, Unity, Prosperity)
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To: GunRunner

Didn’t happen. I called you dumb because you’re dumb.


118 posted on 12/09/2007 3:08:56 PM PST by Petronski (Reject the liberal superfecta: huckabee, romney, giuliani, mccain)
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To: GunRunner

P.S.: I sure as hell am not your boy.


119 posted on 12/09/2007 3:10:16 PM PST by Petronski (Reject the liberal superfecta: huckabee, romney, giuliani, mccain)
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To: puroresu; GunRunner
You are right: I do not have to see a movie to know what it is about. If a movie is labeled pron, I will surely stay away from it.

Many people resent that it is okay to bas Christians and certain other groups. It is to propagandize and influence young people and others.

120 posted on 12/09/2007 3:11:08 PM PST by Jane Austen
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