The Golden Compass -- box-office update (Falls to #12 In 4th Weekend)

FilmChat ^ | December 30, 2007 | Peter T Chattaway

[Cronos]

Total box-office for the US stands at $70 million, way below studio costs of $200 million. Overseas takes are about $150 to 180 million, but Newline isn’t taking that money home. The movie is a flop, with less profit than Superbad

[Cronos]

well, AVP — both 1 and 2 — are not family movies, nor meant for most of the populace. They are meant primarily for those who liked the original Aliens and Predator movies and basically just want to see weird stuff on the screen that are flights of fantasy and gore. it’s always been bad and just like the SAW movies are really not meant for general consumption.

[Cronos]

Lions for Lambs lost $50 million (estimated, so most likely much, much more) — even in over-seas, anti-American markets like the UK and Europe, the take was very low

[Cronos]

It’s butt was saved, right, but foreign markets. But remember that those are by and large fragmented not a large market, but individual, small markets. Also, it just about got saved from losign money but it didn’t make a large profit —> when you put in 200 mil you expect a profit of 100 mil at the very least, but it hasn’t done that.

[Cronos]

well, I would debate that the TGC did better outside the US --> what % of the US box-office did TGC capture in the US? It debuted at #1 (and dropped like a stone immediately afterwards) -- while it opened the same day in dozens of overseas markets in Asia, Latin America, Europe, Canada and Australia, the Middle East, Africa. In most of those markets it did not debut at #1 -- from what I've READ, it opened at #5 or #6 and dropped subsequently. The reason it made more money overseas is because there are more eyeballs overseas (the US is only 300 million, the rest of the world is about 6 billion....).

If you compare TGC to Spiderman III --> THAT was a hit in nearly all other markets and was by a large % the number one box-office earner in markets as varied as the UK, Argentina and India.

[Cronos]

Do note again — the overseas market means 100+ countries, so you can’t classify it as a hit as there will be costs per country and in each country, the ranking of that movie vis-a-vis others needs to be seen. I’ll take the example of Spiderman III again —> it was a hit even in non-English countries that have their own huge domestic film-making industries: in France, in China, in India, in Russia, etc.

[skipper18]

Compass made 372 million worldwide. 302 million of that was foreign.

To compare, Prince Caspian is at the very end of its run everywhere with 301 million worldwide .. on a 200 million budget, compared to Compass’ 180 million.

[skipper18]

“Overseas takes are about $150 to 180 million”

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=GoldenCompass.htm

Foreign: $302,126,938

[skipper18]

“In most of those markets it did not debut at #1 — from what I’ve READ, it opened at #5 or #6 and dropped subsequently”

It opened at #1 in almost everty terrority on the planet. When it’s opening weekends in each territory are cumed, it’s the 26th biggest opener in history, unadjusted.

Again, see: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=GoldenCompass.htm

Also note that it was the 13th highest grossing film of the year worldwide inspite of its flop in the US.

Disclaimer: I’m not defending the film’s content, I’m defending honesty and accuracy.

[Cronos]

Thanks for that. I was wrong.