Mr. Floppy 04.13.08: The Golden Compass

Posted by Peter Bielik on 04.13.2008

The devil's movie. Stay away from it!

After two weeks of pure Dutch controversy, I turn to a more conservative subject- a family fantasy film. I mean- those are the films enjoyed by everyone worldwide and are ideal for spending time with kids in the theatre. Right? Well, as it turned out, even an innocently meant film like this one can produce some controversy. And this time around, it certainly didn't create cash.



Year of the cock-up: 2007

Budget: $180,000,000

Domestic gross: $70,107,728

Foreign gross: $297,018,445

Worldwide gross: $367,126,173


Ever since the success of Lord of the Rings, fantasy films became the hot thing to do in Hollywood. It's always the same- someone resurrects a dead genre (or gives wings to an unpopular one) and suddenly the floodgates are open with many duplicators, trying to achieve the same level of success. Following 1992's Unforgiven, western movies once again were the thing to do. Tombstone semi-succeeded, while Wyatt Earp's fall basically brought an end to this western resurgence.
And because Lord of the Rings made quite the money worldwide ($2.91 billion is definitely a head-turning amount), several fantasy projects followed. The Chronicles of Narnia was released in 2005 and became a huge success ($744,783,957 worldwide). Truth be told, I was a bit surprised about the enormous success the movie enjoyed. A year later, Eragon tried to pull the same stunt, but didn't have the same success ($247,894,671 worldwide). The budget wasn't that big with Eragon however ($100 million), so along with the rentals, the movie was a financial success.
And so, on Christmas 2008, another fantasy film was set to entertain the youth of the world (let's not kid ourselves- kids are the primary target of these films). This time, it was once again an adaptation of a famous fantasy novel and the movie was brought to the world via New Line Cinema, the very studio that was basically put on the map thanks to their Lord of the Rings trilogy. At a whopping $180 million, it was probably the most expensive movie ever made by the studio. Fueled by the success of Peter Jackson's series, they believed fantasy-films are a gold mine and it would be their mistake if they didn't capitalize on the boom they themselves initiated. They didn't expect the source material that was supposed to help sell the movie to the public, to actually be a burden they wouldn't be able to carry all the way to a successful finish.

The world of The Golden Compass was born in the head of a British writer Philip Pullman. It consists of three novels, the first of which was adapted for the movie (with the remaining two being obviously planned for possible sequels). The books were a huge success, selling many copies and receiving some prestigious awards. But they were also the target of heavy criticism and controversy. The cause of all the ruckus was, as usual, the Catholic Church.
Pullman, who sees himself as an atheist, has included in the trilogy several religious and "spiritual" themes involving (for example) the nature of divinity, life after death, angels and the human soul. However, his unorthodox treatment of these subjects and his negative portrayal of the organized religion shows that he's not exactly Catholic Church's biggest fan. Some of the characters criticize institutional religion. For example, Ruta Skadi, a witch calling for war against the Magisterium (a dogmatic theocracy suspiciously resembling guess what organization?), says that "For all of [the Church's] history… it's tried to suppress and control every natural impulse. And when it can't control them, it cuts them out." Of course the crazy Catholics were not pleased as always happens when someone tries to present a different view on the world as well as (oh, the blasphemy!) a non-complimentary view on the Church itself.
Well, controversy creates cash, right? It worked with Passion of the Christ and it worked with The Da Vinci Code. The difference this time around was that the movie was aimed at families with children and in the Catholic America, that unsurprisingly presented a big problem.
The movie was directed by Chris Weitz, who was actually quite a surprising choice for a movie like this. I mean, a track record of directing American Pie and About a Boy isn't exactly what springs to your mind when you're deciding who is going to direct your $180 million fantasy epic. Then again, neither is the director of Bad Taste and Braindead, so maybe the producers were trying to catpture lightning in a bottle for the second time. Weitz had a tough job- he and his crew had to significantly tone down the anti-Christian mood that was in the book, but at the same time stay true to the novel without alienating Pullman's fan-base.
Weitz, who originally declined the offer to direct this project, did his best given the circumstances. The fans of the novel were vocal about such petty things like the color of Marisa Coulter's (played by Nicole Kidman) hair, which was brown in the novel.
Meanwhile, the Catholic League called for a straight-out boycott of the film. Because of this, several key themes of the novels, such as the rejection of religion and the abuse of power in a fictionalised version of the Catholic Church, were diluted in the adaptation. Director Weitz said "in the books the Magisterium is a version of the Catholic Church gone wildly astray from its roots", but that the organization portrayed in his film would not directly match that of Pullman's books. Instead, the Magisterium represents all dogmatic organizations.
This change and explanation were not enough for the crazy people of Catholic League. League president William A. Donohue said he would not ordinarily object to the film, but that while the religious elements are diluted from the source material, the film will encourage children to read the novels, which he says "denigrate Christianity" and promote "atheism for kids." And I'm sure we all know that atheism is definitely NOT the thing you want to teach your children. It's the work of the devil.

And as ludicrous as this entire "boycott" sounds, it probably worked. Word got around that The Golden Compass was anti-Christian and boom, American families turned their backs on the film just like that. The North American opening weekend return of $25.8 million was an extremely disappointing number and well below the expectations of just about anyone. Unlike previous year's Eragon, The Golden Compass had great trailers leading up to the premiere and they all promised perfectly fine holiday family fun. With a huge budget, it was obvious this movie was a flop. Now you may look at the income figures from the rest of the world, but there is a catch in that also. You see, Overseas rights to the film were sold to fund the $180 million production budget for the film, so most of these profits did not go to New Line Cinema. By the time the film had earned a global box office of $330 million in March 2008, it was estimated that the decision had cost New Line 75% of the film's return.
The result of this? The studio was absorbed into its Time Warner sibling Warner Bros Pictures on February 28th, 2008 and will operate as a producer of small horror and genre films.





I find this movie's flopping a rather sad fact actually. While it's nothing legendary, it's definitely better and more interesting than recent Christmas hits (National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Night at the Museum, Alvin and the Chipmunks). The fact that American audiences ignored the film, because the story's author has openly included his opinion about the Christian Church in his books, speaks volumes about the level of tolerance present in USA today.

I'm sorry, but I'm not going to accept the "it just plain sucks" excuse. National Treasure, Night at the Museum, Alvin--- is anybody telling me those films are some fine piece of art? Narnia made big bucks and I'm sure the fact that the film includes many Christian themes and in its delivery of those carries a strictly pro-Christian message played a part in that.
I don't want to generalize, but this is the voice of the masses speaking. Anti-Christian= bad, Pro-Christian= good. USA is presented as the land of the free, but whenever someone tries to step aside from the majority, he only gets fingers pointed at him. The people will scream about individual rights, but when someone really tries to be individual, he only gets disrespect for it.
Christian beliefs maybe are important to the lives of many people, but even they should be open to hear an opinion from the opposite side of the barricade. Some people say it's OK to present this view, but they belong in the alternative part of culture. That sounds very liberal and free. It basically says that your opinions matter, but when they differentiate too much from the present status quo, you can shove them right up your ass.

We live in the 21st century and I am saddened that even today, people are unwilling to listen to anyone who's saying something else they want to hear. Even if it's only a part of a family film. And by forcing these beliefs on the children, you're making sure that the intolerance and ignorance are hear to stay.

So since the flopping of The Golden Compass was the doing of the dogmatic masses, I hereby award them the title Mr. Floppy.




Ain't that a loving picture? Would you like people like this to school your kids? And if not, why let them decide which movie you're going to see?

- Peter