At least I bought the chemistry of the leads of those other movies. Tristan & Yvaine = fail.

Wow, not only was Golden Compass the only wide release this week, but it's one of only two wide releases in the past two weeks (along with Awake last week). This movie's only competition was Enchanted in it's 3rd week, and it looks like it'll be barely even able to pull in $25 Million. That's bad.

If anything is going to save New Line is going to be Harold and Kumar 2 and Semi-Pro.

Estimates are about $10M sat. for Golden Compass, which puts it around 25-28 for the weekend. That's about $5-10M below estimates that were already slashed a few days ago based on early tracking.

As far as the budget. link

I believe there's a movie opening next weekend that stars that popular actor, Will Smith. It may or may not be a mega hit, but it will have a huge opening. If Golden Compass has the usual big budget 50% drop next weekend, we're talking $12-$14 million for weekend 2. not good.

Does anyone know what the early projections for I am Legend are ? It seems like a movie that will have a huge opening weekend.

This is the first (and only projection to the best of my knowledge) on RT:

Although the property will target many of the same folks who have dropped billions on fantasy smashes like The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and The Chronicles of Narnia, the source material is not as popular plus there is already backlash from some in the religious community for the anti-Christian material in the Philip Pullman books. Reaching the $65.6M opening of Narnia from this very weekend two years ago will be impossible. Instead, a debut closer to the $27.5M of Beowulf last month could be in order since there may be much overlap. Compass has more appeal for younger kids and females so a bigger bow should result. Opening in over 3,000 theaters, The Golden Compass might premiere to the tune of $33M this weekend.

Also, boxofficereport.com posted their prediction late Wed at possibly 33M too.

Very happy to see No Country For Old Men still growing every weeek.

in the uk it grossed $60 mil.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...goryid=19&cs=1

Agree. The Cohen Brothers should cut me a check for my non-stop endorsement of this film. Family, friends, strangers Really hope this wins Best Picture this year.

I knew this would be huge in the UK.

$60M is the estimate for the entire UK run based solely on the opening day numbers.

I'm not surprised that the Golden Compass had a low opening weekend. The books are less well known than Harry Potter, LOTR, and Narnia, and much more Anglo-centric than them. FWIW, the books are better written than HP and Narnia. Another thing that probably hurt it was the book's deepness and female centric focus. Those are two tough things to adapt from page to screen. In retrospect, the whole His Dark Materials trilogy would have been better as a HBO/BBC miniseries similar to Rome, Angels in America, or Band of Brothers than as three films.

The religious boycott probably hurt it too. The book itself has been frequently challenged, so the boycott should not have come as a surprise.

The fan backlash might be for the first week only. A lot of fans were disappointed when they heard how much had been taken out, but if there is good word of mouth they might see it while it still is in theaters.

I am waiting alot more for harold and kumar 2 than I was for Golden Compass. After all the previews I have seen for it, it just doesnt interest me. Maybe it is because I never read the book, actually never even heard of the story before I saw the first promo for the movie.

From Comingsoon.net:
"Compass" did have a strong international debut, grossing an estimated $55 million from 25 countries, but New Line sold off all international territories, meaning that the studio's take will be capped."

But I'm sure they got a nice amount from selling off those territories. They certainly wouldn't give them away for cheap.

Yeah, the movie made a total of $81.1m worldwide.

I will see H&K 2 for the poster I saw this weekend alone, What would Neil Patric Harris Do? I laughed my ass off...

Someone more savy than me should post it...

I'd agree. Since the book is British, they'd expect some larger foreign returns. Plus, it people pre-bought the rights, they have made more on perceived value, than the actual value (which appears to be lower).

It's hard to see New Line coming out of this with anything to show for it, but in the end, it shouldn't be too bad. I mean the film will make a serious chunk of change in the US ($100 million?) and do decently well overseas.

Sorry, but who in their right mind doesn't know that a lot has to be removed to fit into a two-hour window?

BOM numbers, since no one posted new ones:

TW LW Title (click to view) Studio Weekend Gross % Change Theater Count / Change Average Total Gross Budget* Week #
1 N The Golden Compass NL $26,125,000 - 3,528 +2,649 $7,405 $26,125,000 $180 1
2 1 Enchanted BV $10,706,000 -34.7% 3,520 -210 $3,041 $83,865,000 - 3
3 3 This Christmas SGem $5,000,000 -37.0% 1,879 +21 $2,660 $42,760,000 $13 3
4 6 Fred Claus WB $4,660,000 -15.3% 3,185 -235 $1,463 $65,589,000 - 5
5 2 Beowulf Par. $4,400,000 -46.4% 2,976 -273 $1,478 $75,983,000 $150 4
6 10 No Country for Old Men Mira. $4,233,000 -3.5% 1,324 +329 $3,197 $28,861,000 - 5
7 7 August Rush WB $3,525,000 -29.8% 2,310 - $1,525 $25,148,000 - 3
8 4 Hitman Fox $3,475,000 -42.3% 2,418 -50 $1,437 $35,810,000 - 3
9 5 Awake MGM/W $3,301,000 -43.6% 2,023 +21 $1,631 $10,716,000 - 2
10 9 Bee Movie P/DW $2,612,000 -41.2% 2,707 -443 $964 $121,028,000 $150 6

It did better than Eragon!