Nicole Kidman's "Golden Compass" Flops Early On

"The Golden Compass" proved a mild fantasy at the box office, pulling in $26.1 million, a modest opening weekend compared to such recent December heavyweights as "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Chronicles of Narnia" flicks.

New Line Cinema's "The Golden Compass," whose cast includes Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, also took in $55 million overseas since it began opening last Wednesday in 25 other countries.

Disney's "Enchanted," the No. 1 movie the previous two weekends, fell to second-place with $10.7 million, raising its total to $83.9 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

New Line, which had enormous success with its three "Lord of the Rings" films, had hoped for more out of "The Golden Compass," expecting it to reach at least $30 million domestically over its first weekend, said Rolf Mittweg, the studio's marketing chief. The film cost $180 million to make.

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Comments

[SlithyTove]

Truly Orwellian Newspeak...the undisputed number one movie at $26 million is a "flop"?

Especially in comparison to what this David Germain said exactly one week ago about "Enchanted" at $17 million (see below). What is his agenda? Do his sympathies lie with the conservative catholic protestors whose boycott plans were deflated by the church's own reviewers?

Excerpt (Google it, if you don't believe me) from David Germain/AP December 2,2007 AP article entitled, interestingly enough, "'ENCHANTED' DAZZLES AGAIN AT BOX OFFICE":

'The fairy-tale romance "Enchanted" maintained its magic at the box office, pulling in $17 million to remain the top movie amid a sleepy weekend at theaters.'

[Imzadi]

Spurious Headline!!!!!

I am getting really sick and tired of HuffPo skewing headlines.

[WilliamWallace]

Ah, see....American "Christian" Fundamentalism and its accompanying fear of independent thought will cost you.

Funny thing, as God is all about thinking for yourself, knowing things, asking "why", on and on.

[GregSolo]

You can't win in this town. If your last picture earned $100M and your next earns $60, it is a disappointment. It's called greed.

[aninconvenientgay]

I'll be going to see it again this weekend, if for no other reason than to piss off all of the religious conservatives.

[rwe]

The movie itself is entertaining and engaging with quite good performances.... However , bottom line it is nowhere near , Narnia or Rings and with Hollywood asking $10.00and up per ticket and the baggage it carried from the authors books(atheist or not he has baggage) people will weigh their choices...

[NoOneSpecial]

It's because everyone is waiting for that Christmas box office sensation: "Sweeney Todd"

[ceasenake]

Is "Redacted" gone?

It was still in ten theatres last week where it made an average of $500 in each theatre - about 50 people saw it. It's total US gross is $54,000. I don't see any records for this week.

I know it's doing better overseas - and now DePalma says it was made for the overseas market - Originally he had said it was to turn Americans against the war.

[rucognizant]

IT'S the ECONOMY stupid!
Forget the ideology of it.
Food and fuel prices are 30 - 50% higher than they were for Narnia or The ring trilogy!
How many people who had homes then, are losing them now,because of the sub prime disaster!

[SFNathan]

$26 million is no flop. The critics have not been kind to the movie and that may have contributed to it opening weaker than expected, but I saw the movie yesterday and thought it was fantastic. It will do well at the box office once word of mouth gets out about how good it is.

[Delaware22]

Just saw it today and Nicole was perfect for the part....great movie!

[Weathermaker]

Let's see: $26m domestically and $55m overseas. That's $81m. Not bad for 3 days. I'm pretty sure New Line will recover their investment even before the DVD comes out. And considering the DVD sales are comparable with the in theater ones, I'm sure NLC will get a cool $100m in profits. Flop? I don't think so.

[ChiGuy]

Could it be that one of the reasons it flopped is because no one was out promoting it in the media?

I haven't seen one actor from the flick anywhere.

Next time anyone's contemplating dumping $180 million, please give me a call first.

[LibsRHilarious]

BWAHHHHA!

Put it next to Robert Redford's and Reese Witherspoon's flops.

[Erdgeist]

This movie is about an evil God that many Americans worship. We learn about this evil god in the Holy Babble.

"I form the light and create darkness, I bring good and create evil; I, the LORD, do all these things." — Isaiah 45:7

Now, if this God isn't like the Authority in the movie I don't know what is. God is really malevolent. It is not surprising since the children of Abraham are, right now, destroying this world.