{"id":1182,"date":"2007-12-08T14:06:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-08T14:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/12\/the-golden-compass-bombs-in-north-america\/"},"modified":"2007-12-08T14:06:00","modified_gmt":"2007-12-08T14:06:00","slug":"the-golden-compass-bombs-in-north-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/12\/the-golden-compass-bombs-in-north-america.html","title":{"rendered":"The Golden Compass bombs in North America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
I can\u2019t sum up the basic points any better than Lou Lumenick<\/a> of the New York Post<\/i> already has:<\/span><\/p>\n

Early Friday estimates<\/a> for \u201cThe Golden Compass<\/a>\u201d are running between $8.6 and $8.8 million, suggesting the megabucks fantasy may have a hard time matching the $27.5 million opening weekend of \u201cBeowulf<\/a>,\u201d much less than $65.6 million debut for \u201cThe Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe<\/a>.\u201d New Line has copped to a budget of $180 million for \u201cGolden Compass,\u201d which likely means it actually cost north of $200 million. Perhaps 60-65 percent of that is covered by foreign pre-sales, but that also means New Line won\u2019t be able to make up a domestic shortfall with revenues from overseas, where \u201cCompass\u201d is at least posting respectable numbers. Expect a statement from New Line tomorrow that they expect \u201cCompass\u201d to play well through the holiday season, which is the standard Hollywood spin on underperforming tentpoles. Forget about the second<\/a> and third<\/a> installments of Philip Pullman<\/a>\u2018s<\/b> trilogy, and Nicole Kidman<\/a><\/b> can probably say bye-bye to $15 million paydays<\/a> at least for a while.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Variety<\/a><\/i>, which reported yesterday<\/a> that the studio was predicting an opening weekend in the $30 million to $40 million range, adds this interesting data point of comparison:<\/p>\n

Pic\u2019s opening day take is on par with last December\u2019s \u201cEragon,\u201d also based on a young adult fantasy book, which grossed $8.7 million on its first day and $23.2 million during its opening weekend.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And Eragon<\/i> had a production budget<\/a> of only (only!) $100 million and opened against stiff competition<\/a> in the form of both The Pursuit of Happyness<\/i> and Charlotte\u2019s Web<\/a><\/i>, whereas The Golden Compass<\/i> was the only new wide release this week.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Nikki Finke<\/a> of Deadline Hollywood Daily adds:<\/p>\n

Wildly expensive flop should sink New Line Cinema chairman Bob Shaye\u2019s chances to stay on when his contract expires in 2008\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And, hmmm, if Shaye<\/a> were to leave New Line Cinema<\/a>, maybe that would open the door<\/a> to the studio patching things up<\/a> with Peter Jackson<\/a> and getting started on that long-delayed movie version of The Hobbit<\/a><\/i>. I mean, it\u2019s not like the studio has any other<\/i> surefire hits in development right now \u2014 not after the failure of The Golden Compass<\/i> has made it pretty much impossible to go ahead with the even costlier, even more controversial<\/a> sequels to that film.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, let\u2019s hope the film\u2019s original deleted ending<\/a> will be included, in some form, on the DVD. MTV News<\/a> posted a story yesterday in which director Chris Weitz and a few of the cast members speculated as to what other<\/i> things might be included if an \u201cextended version\u201d of the film were to be released on DVD.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I can\u2019t sum up the basic points any better than Lou Lumenick of the New York Post already has: Early Friday estimates for \u201cThe Golden Compass\u201d are running between $8.6 and $8.8 million, suggesting the megabucks fantasy may have a hard time matching the $27.5 million opening weekend of \u201cBeowulf,\u201d much less than $65.6 million […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Golden Compass bombs in North America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I can't sum up the basic points any better than Lou Lumenick of the New York Post already has:Early Friday estimates for "The Golden Compass'' are running\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/12\/the-golden-compass-bombs-in-north-america.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Golden Compass bombs in North America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I can't sum up the basic points any better than Lou Lumenick of the New York Post already has:Early Friday estimates for "The Golden Compass'' are running\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/12\/the-golden-compass-bombs-in-north-america.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-12-08T14:06:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/R1seo5DkcII\/AAAAAAAAA5w\/3BAqx1azGcE\/s400\/goldencompass-runrunrun.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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