Comments on: The Golden Compass Bombed = Myth

By: Rob

Rob — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:29:10 +0000

I just watched it with my mom. I’m 50 she’s 83.
We both thought it was great. I hope they get a sequel off the ground. Visually stunning.

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 04:05:32 +0000

It’s New Line’s fault this wasn’t a bigger success, they made very significant cuts at the last minute and all the controversy…if it had been a better movie it would’ve made a good amount of money.

By: shayne shawver

shayne shawver — Sat, 17 May 2008 08:17:58 +0000

Ok so what dont you see in it theres action, suspence plot, big name actors, and made you want to watch it again and again this movie was awesome, i dont see how people didnt like it.

By: black hull

black hull — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 22:09:22 +0000

We LOVED this movie… saw it in the theater and were blown away by the spectacle, loved the story line, the characters, the animals and the northern landscapes. (Isn’t Nicole Kidman supposed to look creepy-beautiful?) My kids were there, ages 6 and 8, and loved it too, as was my 82 year old immigrant father. We’ve been hoping for a sequel, so this is good news, though I read that they’d sold the foreign rights to finance the production so perhaps that changes the outlook.
We thought the Narnia movie was bad — boring and static; so go figure. No accounting for tastes, perhaps, or is it that we are ‘European’?

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 23:27:10 +0000

i loved this movie and books. i think nicole kidman should have got an oscar nomination for this. i really want them to make a sequel!!!

By: probitionate

probitionate — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:24:53 +0000

This film’s flaw…rendering all others moot…is the script.

Period.

If anyone at the studio peruses online forums, it should be crystal-clear that this was the case. The critiques were consistent: too spare an edit, no time for exposition or character development, too rushed.

In fact, I’m willing to bet that the DVD release will be an attempt to make amends, and in doing so, test the waters for the subsequent two films: there will be an attached ‘Director’s Cut’, allowing the missing narrative elements (assuming they were shot, and I’m willing to additionally bet they were) to make up for what was lost through the executives-mandated brevity.

I saw the film twice. Once at a preview…where I was aghast at the shite storytelling…and later, with my mom, who really, really wanted to see it. My reaction the second time was an ‘A-ha!’ process; I can see how the makers got lost in the crafting of the cut in post-production, how they fooled themselves into believing that all was well. (For the record, my mom loved it. And she’s VERY hard to please.)

So my money (sounds like I’m turning into a betting man) is on the two ’sequels’ being made.

(And as for the ‘Christian protest’ aspect? Pure hogwash. Less than a tempest in a tea-pot.)

By: Kristina

Kristina — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 23:12:12 +0000

The controversy had nothing to do with the box office. If a film is good, no amount of controversy can keep audiences away. The movie had two unappealing leads and a meh trailer. I called this when they released the Comic-Con footage. Lemme go find my quote………aha!

From July 30th, 2007:

“I LOVE Nicole Kidman, but she is looking creepy as hell lately, and not just in this film. Lay off the Botox, babe.

And this movie looks a bit too…I’m trying to find the right word….heavy? adult? for the kiddie crowd. I can see little ones falling asleep on this thing or kicking the chairs in the theater with those damn light-up shoes. I don’t know. It looks interesting, but I’m not completely sold yet.”

And I’ll bet I wasn’t the only one who thought this. If I hadn’t been invited to a screening by a friend, I wouldn’t have gone to see this thing at all. It was too adult to be called a kiddie movie, yet the story wasn’t cultivated enough to be taken seriously as an adult movie.

By: Lasse

Lasse — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 22:27:27 +0000

When Newline sells the international distribution rights, they normally require a minimum garuantee, that pays for the distribution rights. Any revenue made above that excl. marketing costs that is shared 50/50. So yes Newline will most likely make a very nice profit. Then are the other issues, like when the movie is part of a package deal. Then you can forget about trying to calculate anything, because the whole slate of movies can influence the price/profitability.

By: skylights

skylights — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 20:47:19 +0000

Too many people think of things as either/or. How about “and”? The film bombed domestically because of a compounding of factors already mentioned: Poor/too little marketing, the public’s unfamiliarity with the source material, little word of mouth, mixed to bad reviews, and the boycott. (The difference between “Da Vinci Code” and “The Golden Compass” is that Christians saw the former as an adults’ movie with heretical themes, which they could handle, but the latter as a movie covertly trying to sell atheism to their children, an idea that horrified them.)

One thing everyone should know is that it’s New Line, not the director, who is responsible for the film’s incoherence. This is evidenced by comparing Chris Weitz’ original script with the final cut. The studio re-ordered the scenes, cut out major footage and plotlines, and chopped off the end altogether. The Golden Compass video game includes cut footage that gives an idea of what the movie might have looked like had the studio not hacked it to bits. More information can be found here:

http://www.hisdarkmaterials.org/news/the-golden-compass/what-about-the-directors-cut

Hopefully there will be a director’s cut DVD so we can see Weitz’ vision untouched by the studio hacks. The DVD will probably push the movie into the black, if it isn’t there already.

The sequels will be less expensive because they’ll be working from CGI libraries they created for the first film. Also, the cast and crew’s pay will be less because there will be no initial signing fee like for the first movie.

By: cib3k

cib3k — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 20:18:47 +0000

The truth is most fantasy movies make a lot of money outside US. Even Uwe Boll bragged about how his last movie was kinda well received in Europe. Unfortunately there are a lot of people around the world who enjoy empty stories with pretty fireworks.