W E D N E S D AY, J A N U A RY 0 2 , 2 0 0 8Is "The Golden Compass" Franchise Alive?"The Golden Compass" is doing gangbusters overseas.</p><p> In the US, itsalmost done at $60 mil.</p><p> But overseas it has grossed three times that($187 mil) and looks easily headed towards $250 mil.</p><p> That would meanmore than $300 mil worldwide.</p><p> Not great for a movie that cost $200mil, but not awful either.</p><p> Recently, dragon flick Eragon (itself based ona quartet of books) grossed a disappointing $75 mil in the US butanother $175 mil overseas (its budget was about $100 mil) makingwhat looked like a flop opener the first in a franchise.</p><p> And of courseDVD sales are extremely strong in the fantasy category.</p><p> So the weakopening of the film meant New Line panicked and finally made nicewith Peter Jackson so "The Hobbit" could go forward.</p><p> But with hugeoverseas grosses and the possibility that some of the production costfor the sequels will be lower because of all the money poured into thefirst one, there's still a chance they could roll the dice and make bothparts two and three at the same time.</p><p> Two stumbling blocks remain:will Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig want massive paydays for an iffyfranchise and of course the biggest problem of all is that parts two andthree are a LOT more controversial.</p><p> It may just not be worth thebother, but with $300 mil box office worldwide and another $200 to$300 mil worldwide from DVD (very conservatively), it won't bebecause they lost money.POSTED BY MICHAEL IN NEW YORK AT 12:36 PM 4 C O M M E N T S :vijay said...i am hoping they consider international total to consider for a sequel..i have read dark materials books ,they are fantastic ,they must makeit...3:47 PM Anonymous said...Do you realize that New Line sold the overseas rights to help financethis movie? If New Lines sees anything of that overseas money, it willbe minimal.</p><p> The director himself said the budget went to $250 million.Next Blog»sal1mineo@hotmail.comSEARCH BLOG FLAG BLOGFOLLOW BLOGP O P S U R F I N G .</p><p> C O MS U R F I N G T H E WAV E S O F P O P U L A R C U LT U R EB Y M I C H A E L G I LT Z & F R I E N D SPOPSURFING.COM: Is "The Golden Compass" Franchise Alive?http://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2008/01/is-golden-compass-fran... 1 of 37/25/09 2:33 AMFAV O R I T E L I N K SAmericablogFive O'Clock Lightning baseball blogDeep Pop -- Lori Lakin's BlogThe Back Page -- Jason Page on ESPNRadioCine-Blog -- George Robinson's BlogDocuments On Art & Cinema - DarylChin's BlogBrucie G's Wondrous Blog OfAdventure and Mystery -- BruceGreenspan's BlogB L O G A R C H I V E▼ 2009 (15)▼ July (2)Swimming Bans Those Hi-TechSuits!Best Movies Of The Year -- TheMaster List► June (3)► May (1)► March (2)► February (1)► January (6)► 2008 (87)► 2007 (781)► 2006 (2412)► 2005 (5)C O N T R I B U TO R SMichael in New YorkBiboyAaron POPSURFING.COM: Is "The Golden Compass" Franchise Alive?http://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2008/01/is-golden-compass-fran... 2 of 37/25/09 2:33 AMPOPSURFING.COM: Is "The Golden Compass" Franchise Alive?http://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2008/01/is-golden-compass-fran... 3 of 37/25/09 2:33 AM
