His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass
It is looking more and more unlikely that His Dark Materials fans will get to see the two sequels to The Golden Compass on the big screen.
While the big budget film and intended first of a trilogy failed to light up the US box office, it performed rather well in most other markets across the globe. With New Line Cinema having sold off its distribution rights for those territories however (to help finance production), it seems questionable whether the studio made any profit. In fact, the recent subsumption of New Line under the Warner Bros. banner (which will see 450 New Line jobs going out the window) is said to be directly related to the financial failure of The Golden Compass in the United States.
Crew members of the film have now come out and said that many of the movie sets have since been destroyed - as opposed to kept in storage for the production on the sequels The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.
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After receiving generally lacklustre reviews following it’s western theatrical debut and only achieving $69m domestic gross, it appears that The Golden Compass is once again proving to be a hit with overseas audiences.
Variety reports that after its 700-screen release by Gaga communications on Saturday, the pic scooped Y270 million ($2.5 million) in sneak screenings over the weekend.
The audience demo was wider than expected, mixing families, teens of both sexes and fans in their 50s and 60s. Gaga has not set a box office target, but the film’s take was 159% better than sneaks for Night at the Museum, which scooped $33.4 million in Japan. A reasonable box office projection would be $51 million, taking the movie’s global haul to perhaps the $400m+ mark by the end of its theatrical run. With DVD and Blu-ray income on top of that, fans hoping for a sequel have cause to be cautiously optimistic.
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New Line Cinema’s The Golden Compass may have tanked at the US Box Office, but thanks to an impressive international run the fantasy film now has a cumulative gross of $315 million at the worldwide box office.
The adaptation of Philip Pullman’s novel Northern Lights has earned only $67 million in the United States to date, but its strong performance in various other territories (particularly the UK, Spain, South Korea and Australia) has seemingly come to the rescue of the big budget production (and possibly its potential sequels).
New Line Cinema’s Marketing Chief Rolf Mittweg said in a press statement: ‘The box office revenue has been nothing less than astonishing overseas. With the forthcoming premiere in Japan, we can expect a significant boost to our worldwide box office.’
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In spite of a disappointingly low $41 million gross at the US box office after its first two weekends, The Golden Compass is doing rather well financially in overseas markets.
New Line Cinema has announced that the film has surpassed the $100 million mark in the international box office after opening at #1 in 23 territories. The fantasy epic is continuing to play well with notable performances in the United Kingdom ($26.7 million), Spain ($11.4 million), France ($10.3 million), Germany ($9.8 million), Russia ($6.8 million) and Asia ($11.3 million), including a spectacular $3.5 million in its South Korean debut.
With the film yet to open in Australia and New Zealand (Dec. 26), parts of South America (Dec. 20 - Dec. 25), India (Jan. 4), and Japan (March 1), there is still every chance that it will recuperate its enormous production costs, which in turn should make the studio more agreeable to the idea of greenlighting the anticipated two sequels.
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AwardsDaily has posted the fifteen films shortlisted for this year’s Best Special Effects Oscar:
Beowulf / The Bourne Ultimatum / Evan Almighty / The Golden Compass / Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix / I Am Legend / Live Free or Die Hard / National Treasure: Book of Secrets / Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End / Ratatouille / Spider-Man 3 / Sunshine / 300 / Transformers / The Water Horse
Only three of these candidates will make the cut as official nominees; and the only real lock is Michael Bay’s Transformers. As for the other two? My bet is on Pirates 3 and The Golden Compass, but this list is really tough to narrow down. We’ll find out for sure when the Academy Awards nominees are announced January 22.
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A clip from the original ending of The Golden Compass is now available on YouTube.
Studio pressure forced director Chris Weitz to cut what amounted to the final three chapters of author Philip Pullman’s original novel shortly before the film was released to secure a more upbeat ending for the movie. We’ve seen glimpses of the missing scenes in the trailers, but the film’s official video game features a cut scene of Lyra arriving at Lord Asriel’s Svalbard laboratory with Roger in tow - connaisseurs of the book will know this as the build-up to the great betrayal.
You can use the player below to watch the clip directly on our site:
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Viewers left unsatisfied with the rushed narrative of The Golden Compass may be able to look forward to a director’s cut of the film that could feature up to thirty minutes of additional footage.
Director Chris Weitz told MoviesOnline.ca: I really hope an extended version is put out because I’d really love to do a fuller cut of the film. I would imagine – it’s interesting. I would like to make the director’s version and not the super duper long version which is long for length’s sake. So I think that it could probably end up at two and half hours, I would say. So it’s not going to be the kitchen sink, but I do think there are areas that could be explored much more fully.
New Line Cinema experienced considerable success with their extended edition DVDs for the Lord of the Rings films, so there’s a good chance this new cut will happen (also in light of the film’s disappointing box office).
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New Line Cinema will be left worried over their $200 million investment The Golden Compass, after the film raked in just under $27 million on its opening weekend in the United States, despite topping the box office.
The tally falls short of the studio’s expectations ($30-40m) and it could now be more unsure than ever whether or not director Chris Weitz will get the green light to go ahead with the two planned sequels at all.
Producer Deborah Forte stresses that for that decision to be made, New Line would take the film’s worldwide taking into account. And The Golden Compass does seem to be faring better overseas, making $3.1m in the UK (beating Narnia’s record) and easily topping the charts in France, Spain and Germany.
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New Line Cinema’s bid budget fantasy film The Golden Compass finally makes its theatrical bow around the globe today, and we’ve got some audio clips of the cast and crew to share with you.
You can listen to the likes of Nicole Kidman (Mrs. Coulter), Daniel Craig (Lord Asriel), Sam Elliott (Lee Scoresby), Eva Green (Serafina Pekkala), Dakota Blue Richards (Lyra), plus director Chris Weitz and His Dark Materials author Philip Pullman sharing their thoughts on the project right here on X-Realms.
Simply use our audio players below to start loading the clips.
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Warner Bros. Pictures has provided the X-Realms with two excerpts from Academy Award-nominee Alexandre Desplat’s soundtrack for The Golden Compass, which is released on Decca Records December 7:
Click the links above to initiate the stream.
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