ultimatedjf
Well-Known Member
I totally called it.
Golden Compass
- Thread starter Grocer Man
- Start date
I totally called it.
ourchair
Well-Known Member
I'm loathe to defend box office receipts and business numbers --- despite being a major Hollywood whore --- but we have to decipher these figures properly.E said:
First of all, Enchanted took in roughly the same numbers on its opening weekend. Therefore Golden Compass would have to be a studio profit flop only insofar as it demands larger numbers to earn back its investment.
One shouldn't place too much emphasis on opening weekends. Remember that Hulk had a HUGE opening but ended up not being the success the opening weekend promised.
The average Hollywood film makes a total four-week gross equal to two and a half times the opening weekend earnings. By that logic, Hulk/I] should have made at least $160 million dollars. But poor word of mouth gave it a 70% drop by the following weekend and the film ended up making $130million instead.
That said, if Golden Compass AND Bob Shaye are to have a hope of not getting the pooh pooh treatment around the New Line offices, Compass has to MAINTAIN those numbers.
Enchanted is probably going to end up being on top, regardless, since it was made for less than half the money that was spent on Golden Compass.
In closing, The Golden Compass isn't a flop... yet. It still drew in the same money that Enchanted did. But at the moment, it's not doing the numbers it SHOULD be doing.
I think by saying flop they are saying that there is no indication based on the first day that this will be able to earn back what was spent to make it, much less turn a profit. I don't think expectations are part of the equation other than to say they expect it to not lose money.
Lynx
Well-Known Member
Even with the negative reviews, that's still surprising considering the success of Narnia.
You're one of the very few people I've heard say that.
The difference, though, is I don't think Disney expected Enchanted to do better than it has been doing. Enchanted wound up being a surprisingly good movie, so word of mouth is going to get people to go see it.
The Golden Compass, on the other hand, was expected to be this year's Narnia. Unfortunately, that wasn't to be. So, in addition to the low box office numbers this week, word of mouth is going to keep people away as most of it has been rather negative (Especially from people who read the book and religious advocates).
Exactly. There's no way in hell with such a small opening weekend, in addition to the negative reviews, that the movie is going to make up what was spent on it. I also am starting to doubt that we'll be seeing a sequel.
thee great one
Master of TOG-fu.
I thought it was better than Narnia.
ProjectX2
Don't expect me to take you with me when I go to s
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I didn't think Narnia was that good anyway.
Lynx
Well-Known Member
I haven't seen The Golden Compass yet, as I love the books and am a little hesitant to see the movie after all the negativity, but I thought Narnia was a pretty good adaptation. It made for an enjoyable movie.
ultimatedjf
Well-Known Member
The one good thing that could come out of this bad opening is the possibility that Bob Shaye (the head of New Line) might reconsider bringing Peter Jackson back to direct The Hobbit. 'Cuz right now, New Line is the worst major studio out there.
ourchair
Well-Known Member
I know that's what you're saying and I know that's what they're saying.
I just think people interpret many kinds of box office numbers in very different ways, and its very easy for people to mix those up.
Considering how much marketing they pulled out in the last two months leading up to release, I disagree, but I get what you mean --- Enchanted pulled in a SURPRISING 8 million, Golden Compass pulled in an UNDERWHELMING 8 million. Exact numbers, different value for such a differing investment.Lynx said:
In a semi-related note, the two studios are operating differently.
I think Disney had modestly, but not insanely high expectations for Enchanted but their game card for the past four years has been to operate budgets under a $75 million and make marketing almost non-existent up until the quarter leading to release.
New Line Cinema, is reeling from some bizarre post-LOTR curse that has inflicted them with The Last Mimzy and The New World and is playing an old Disney game card: Risk everything towards one project and hope it plays well.
Unfortunately, that's not playing so well.
Lynx
Well-Known Member
Exactly.
Well, Enchanted has made, what? 83 million so far? That's pretty good if the budget was under 75 million, which I'm sure it was. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to discover Enchanted's budget (Which may be a Disney thing, I dunno), but if I were to guess, I'd say the budget was between 50 and 60 million.
I want to know what the hell New Line was thinking with injecting that much cash into The Golden Compass. Sure, it's a popular book series, but not only is it controversial, it doesn't have the recognition of The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, or even Harry Potter. A budget of $200 million is absurd, especially for an untested property like The Golden Compass.
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moonmaster
Without him, all of you would be lost souls roamin
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It's because this movie is a heathen atheist manifesto trying to indoctrinate our innocent young children into the ways of godlessness under the veil of a children's fantasy story.
*goes to see Narnia with church group*
*goes to see Narnia with church group*
ultimatedjf
Well-Known Member
See, this is why the film is tanking. People can't even distinguish it from all the other LOTR-wannabes.
ourchair
Well-Known Member
I hated this movie.
More reasons to follow later.
More reasons to follow later.
Seldes Katne
Site mom
Back on topic, please.
Which is odd, because Golden Compass really isn't anything like LotR.See, this is why the film is tanking. People can't even distinguish it from all the other LOTR-wannabes.
Lynx
Well-Known Member
True enough. Have you seen it yet, Seldes?
Seldes Katne
Site mom
No. I'm going to try for either next week on Wednesday, when I have my day off, or after Christmas. What I really want to do is re-read the books, since I haven't done that since they first were published, and I honestly don't remember any of the anti-Church/Catholic/religion themes everyone is commenting about. (Or maybe I'm just so used to hearing people slam religion that I tuned it out when I first read them....)
Ice
Teh Sexy Monkey Queen
The Golden Compass went down 65% from last week and only took in $9 million.
ultimatedjf
Well-Known Member
Seldes Katne
Site mom
So, I saw this on Wednesday, and my big question (other than whether or not I now have to go to confession for seeing a movie I was told to boycott) is what the big controversy really is. The daemons in the film are said to be people's souls, and that's about the only religious reference I could see in the film, other than one off-handed comment that "our ancestors defied the Authority" or words to that effect. The Magisterium reminded me far more of the Third Reich than of the Roman Catholic Church. The special effects were quite good, and although the plot really did move very quickly and I could have wished for more character development, it wasn't that difficult to follow. Of course, I have read the books, so that helped. I would recommend the books over the movie, but that's true most of the time anyway.
If nothing else, this really makes me look forward to that massive multi-book discussion that ShaggyMarco proposed on the Book Forum thread.
If nothing else, this really makes me look forward to that massive multi-book discussion that ShaggyMarco proposed on the Book Forum thread.
ourchair
Well-Known Member
I won't dispute the idea that you should comply with the boycott, but I seriously doubt you should go to confession for seeing it. I mean, seeing it is not a sin, nor is disregarding the orders of the church group a sin itself. If anything, you can always say its "oppositional reconnaissance".
A lot of the pre-reviews agreed with you. The Magisterium and The Authority are pretty much a 'non-denominational oppression group' in this film, and I don't have any problems with that (and by all reports, neither does Pullman --- it still runs along the same 'People should be free to give authoritarian hegemony the finger!' motto he espouses)Seldes Katne said:
My problem with the film, and the reason why I hated it so much has nothing to do with the removal of religion or any issues of 'quality of adaptation'. The production values were great, performances were superb and most of the characterization resonated faithfully with the book.
My problem was that the pacing was so damn fast that it lost a lot of the texture and indirectly made the book look like nothing more than one deus ex machina after another with Lyra being led along haplessly by such things. And I don't fault the film-makers 'faithfulness' for that so much as I do the pacing, which makes a lot of the things that are apparent in the book seem nonexistent in such a visual medium as film.
Lyra in the book is a devilish liar who gets better and better at being such a con, but you get no sense of that in the movie. Iorek naming her 'Silvertongue' is still fine because she deserves it for such a clever lie, but it still seems like her clever conning skills come from nowhere.
Also, Ragnar Sturlusson (or Iofur Raknison in the books) and his desire to have a daemon of his own lacks the gravity it does in the book because they don't try to bring the notion that the 'panserbjorne are not humans' into sharp relief. In the books, this desire for a daemon is noteworthy because panserbjorne aren't meant to be 'human-like bears' or even 'anthropomorphic ursa' and they emphasize their lack of humanity-ness over and over.
I'd say more, but this broken keyboard of mine is a real ***** to type with.
