'Golden Compass' Doesn't Get the Lead Out

Box Office Mojo ^ | Dec 10, 2007 | Brandon Gray

[I still care]

Not the oasis it was intended to be, The Golden Compass failed to guide the box office out of the desert. A dispirited response to the fantasy adaptation combined with a largely pathetic group of holdovers led to the least attended early December frame in 13 years.

The Golden Compass pointed to $25.8 million on approximately 5,600 screens at 3,528 theaters, which was about average for a live action fantasy. The turnout was well below half that of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or The Lord of the Rings movies, and the picture was clearly gunning for that league with its reportedly $180 million plus production budget, high screen count and December release date. It was more on par with the less hyped Eragon and Bridge to Terabithia, albeit those pictures had much lower screen counts and more crowded release dates.

Since the phenomenal success of the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings movies, fantasy has been one of the genre fads in Hollywood and Golden Compass suffered from the resulting glut. In its marketing, the picture looked indistinguishable from all the other fantasy movies and its story wasn't clear and hence was not relatable. Throwing a bunch of computer-generated antics and talking animals on the screen is not enough to garner a sizable audience. What's more, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Narnia are the exceptions in the fantasy genre, which was known for its disappointments prior to their release. Those movies had high interest from the popularity of the books on which they were based, whereas the foundations of Golden Compass and other recent fantasies were not nearly as culturally substantial.

[VictoryGal]

> I don’t think it is just the Christian boycott. I am hoping it is that enough people are tired of blatant propaganda from the libs.

It’s not any kind of propaganda from the movie. It’s simply not obvious that it’s a Church allegory — The first Star Wars is more religious-based, frankly.

The big problem for them is that they translated the story poorly. They rush from plot point to plot point. Lord of the Rings it ain’t.

[weegee]

Reminds me of when VeeP Gore got lost in the woods and they had to find him.

[dynachrome]

“not any kind of propaganda from the movie”
Not the first one, but the author’s stated intention is to get rid of Christianity.

Good overview of the author and his intentions with this movie and the sequels:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1936751/posts

[dynachrome]

From link in #23.

In the last volume of the trilogy, a character known as Dr. Mary Malone explains her discovery to Lyra and Will: “I used to be a nun, you see. I thought physics could be done to the glory of God, till I saw there wasn’t any God at all and that physics was more interesting anyway. The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake, that’s all.”

[Mrs. Don-o]

<>"(except for substituting magisterium for catholicism)"

While it's true that most people --- including most Catholics --- don't know what a "magisterium" is, it's a distinctively Catholic word in the same way that say, "Talmud" is distinctivelty Jewish or "Sharia" is distinctively Muslim.

But would they make a children's movie based on the supposedly utter depraved wickedness of the "Talmud" or of "Sharia"? The question answers itself.

[KillTime]

I read all the hype, saw the flick and thought it was a good action movie. I can even see the opposite of those opposed to this film, that is that the magistratim (sp) group in the movie is an athiest group out to destroy the Spirit of God, represented in the animals. Therefore to me, if anything, it made a case For religion, not against. Luckily, as always, I made my own conclusion rather than base it on something others didn't see and therefore I saw a really entertaining film.

btw, if you watch anything, see Enchanted. Best movie I've seen in a long time!

[dynachrome]

“don’t know what a “magisterium’
I certainly didn’t!
So Pullman is just hidng slightly the anti-Catholic nature of the film?

[Mrs. Don-o]

You may be right--- all the Pullman fans said they were nose-twistingly disappointed with the film because it was scrubbed of most of the anti-Catholic markers.

The critics' objections, though, weren't based on the film per se, but on the shrewd (and I think true) realization that it's (1) a massive marketing vehicle for the books, available in holly-jolly good time for Christmas presents, and (2) a prequel to the sequels, which, if faithful to the books, will be explicit atheist bigotry.

Even Bill Donohue said the "big point" wasn't with the movie per se, but with the movie as infomercial and as a lure to "the rest of the story."

And no need to speculate about what the point of THAT is. Pullman is admirably frank about saying his intention is to eradicate religious faith in the hearts of children.

[UCANSEE2]

“I don’t think it is just the Christian boycott. I am hoping it is that enough people are tired of blatant propaganda from the libs.”

And, the movie sucked.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Well, that's the buggery of thw whole thing. In interviews, Pullman is willing to expound at length about how his aim is to destroy religious faith. But though he mentions "pope" and "vatican" and "consistory" (another unusual Catholic term not really on the tip of anybody's tongue) his real reach is against all religion. Religion is the general focus; monotheism is the target; Christianity is the bull's eye; Catholicism is the center of the bull's eye.

I'm doing some reading on Pullman's life. Some personal issues there, leading to vitriolic hate... and not for churches per se, but for, literally, God...

[Santa Fe_Conservative]

However about 97% of Christmas films I have ever seen are utterly horrible, save for A Christmas Story, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and maybe this certain movie about man's Christmas gift to his son:

I still remember that one girl's story of why she stopped believing in Santa...it shocked me when I was younger but when I saw the film again years later it seemed rather odd and goofy.

[dynachrome]

Yeah, but does he diss muzzies? Only Christians and Jews. He is a hypocrite of the first order!

[Mrs. Don-o]

Quote from The Amber Spyglass, book three of the series:

"The Authority, god, the Creator, the Lord, Yahweh, El, Adonai, the King, the Father, the Almighty – those were all names he gave himself. He was never the creator...it was a lie..."

But you'll notice he doesn't mention Allah.

[dynachrome]

He knows better. He wants to keep his head attached.

[Santa Fe_Conservative]

Okay so I was talking about Gremlins, don’t know why the poster picture went away.

[Redcloak]

What I found interesting about this article is total lack of how the Christian boycott may have figured into the lackluster sales.

That's because boycotts don't work. From reviews I've read, GC died because it's not a very good; not because of any boycott. 

[dynachrome]

Gremlins was a fun Christmas movie. Of the more modern ones, I like Scrooged.

[Secret Agent Man]

Not only that, God is portrayed as evil, decrepid that is doing horrible things to people and needs to be destroyed.

That is how atheists view God. If they had their way they’d want to live in a world where nobody mentioned God, nobody believed in God and those that do were to be looked at as insane. That’s how they look at us now. They are the most condescending, self-important, smug, smarty-pants, cynical, spiteful people you ever run across.

[DoughtyOne]

They found him? LOL

[valkyrieanne]

There have been a *lot* of fantasy movies released in the past year or two. Most of them have made money, many on their international releases. Here are some:

2005:
Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Brothers Grimm
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire
Beowulf and Grendel (Gerard Butler)

2006:
Eragon
Tristan and Isolde Pirates of the Caribbean 2
Pan's Labyrinth

2007:
Stardust
Bridge to Terabithia
Beowulf (with Angelina Jolie)
Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix
Pirates of the Caribbean 3
The Water Horse
Tin Man (TV)
Dragon Wars
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Enchanted
Night at the Museum
Evan Almighty
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

There are probably more that I can't think of. The point is, there's a lot of competition out there in the big-budget SFX-fest fantasy genre. Golden Compass in my opinion wasn't that good of a movie. It was boring, preachy, and disorganized, even if it was visually dazzling. Also, I think people are getting saturated on fantasy, to the point where what they see has to be pretty good. They're not going to waste money on mediocre fantasy.