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Dakota Blue Richards and Lorek Byrnison the Ice Bear (voiced by Ian McKellen) in THE GOLDEN COMPASS (2007).
© New Line Cinema

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COMPASS Has Decent International Start

By: Jarrod Sarafin, News Editor
 Date: Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Well, one thing seems clear. New Line's THE GOLDEN COMPASS will not be another 'Evan Almighty' at the box office. Despite the fact that Compass has a higher budget then Evan did and pulled in less in its domestic debut than the Steve Carell comedy, the film opened up to halfway decent numbers in foreign territories over the past week. Early estimates had it pegged to 55 million in 25 territories but that number has been lowered to 51 mil. It should be noted that New Line did sell off a lot of their international distribution to other companies so while the film may end up getting it's money back and more, the same might not be said for New Line's profit margins if the film continues having dismal results here in the states.

A large chunk of it came from these major territories:

-11.9 mil in the UK's 505 screens,

-5.8 mil in France's 776 screens,

-4.8 mil in Germany's 994 screens,

-8.0 mil in Spain's screens

-3.8 mil in Russia's 525 screens

THE GOLDEN COMPASS now has the worldwide total of 76.7 mil, 25.7 of it being domestic and 51.0 foreign.

ENCHANTED follows in 2nd place in foreign territories, taking $11.4 million during the weekend from 2,803 screens in 21 countries to lift its international gross to $36.3 million. It opened at No. 1 in Italy with $3.4 million from 446 screens, recorded $9.8 million in France in 12 days after a second- weekend take of $3.5 million from 660 screens and took in $8.4 million in three weekends in Spain after tallying $1.5 million from 352 in its third session. The Disney film now has a worldwide gross of 120.1 mil with 83.8 of it being domestic cash.

Paramount's BEE MOVIE grabbed $10.5 million over the weekend from 1,908 screens in 19 markets. Its highest weekend total came from Australia  with $2.2 million from 363 screens. The film will be jumping to 24 territories next weekend, hitting the U.K and Germany.The Jerry Seinfeld-led animation has a worldwide gross of 164.6 million with a budget listed at 150 mil.


Another Paramount film follows closely behind. The winner for the last few weeks, BEOWULF reached the $91.5 million mark over the weekend after taking in $9.1 million from 5,000 screens in 61 markets. Key market cumes to date include the U.K., $13.6 million; Russia, $7.9 million; Spain, $6.2 million; Germany, $5.3 million; Italy, $5.1 million; and France, $3.7 million. Robert Zemeckis' motion-capture film has a worldwide tally of 167.7 million with a budget listed at 150 mil.

HITMAN continues to be consistent in oversea sales, earning another $8.2 million from 2,586 screens in 38 markets for an international cume to date of $24.5 million. No budget listed for Fox's adaptation of the videogame but it has 58.3 million worldwide.






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Comments/Responses
1
SinCity • Dec 11, 2007, 04:56am •
Ya know, if theater prices would quit climbing through the roof, box office receipts would quit crawling into the basement!

Dazzler • Dec 11, 2007, 06:49am •
And I know lots of people that wait for DVD now to avoid costs and assholes in theaters.

WISEGUY562 • Dec 11, 2007, 08:27am •
In my opinion the reason isn't so much the prices at the theater but the fact that you can get a bootleg copy, and a good copy at that, almost right away and sometimes before the movie is released. Then on top of that the studios only wait a couple of months to release it themselves on dvd. Obviously that's also to cushion the blow from the pirated dvd's. But all those factors together are hurting the b.o. and in turn prices have to go up. Afterall it seems that more and more people sneak in their own food instead of buying at the concession stand, where the theaters actually make most of their money.
As for GC I knew it would do much better overseas. Especially since the cast is mostly foreign. Bad gamble by New Line selling the dist. rights overseas. Afterall more amd more the overseas market keeps topping the domestic.

WhiteKnight • Dec 11, 2007, 08:46am •
I hear you on the bootleg copies. In Nov. 2005 I went to see Goblet of Fire opening night and hopped on a bus for NYC later that night. By the time I got to the city there were people selling bootleg copies of the DVD on the street for about $5 each.

Personally it's worth it to me to pay the $25 for a DVD loaded with special features, but you can see where the people not interested in that sort of thing would jump at a chance to save $20 on a movie. I guess that's why distributors have taken to releasing about five different versions of the same movie on DVD in the past few years.

I've become much more selective about what I see in the cineplex and usually opt to catch the afternoon show so I can save about $4. It also offers the added benefit that I can go while kids are supposed to be in school and thus usually avoid the pain in the ass teenagers who think they're hot shit because they can throw popcorn and prop their feet up on the seat in front of them. Okay, it's not always just teenagers who act that way, but you catch my drift I expect.

shadowprime • Dec 11, 2007, 09:27am •

Infinitely more well-informed folks have doubtless studied this to death, but my thoughts re box office downturn in general...

(1) Ticket prices have GOT to be a part of it. Realize we all have our own budgets, so what concerns me might be trivial to you, but when you consider that taking a family of four to the movies can easily run in the $60-$70 range (between tickets and concessions), that is NOT insignificant. You have to have a realy incentive to lay that out to see a movie in a theater, especially when...

(2) As noted above.... bootlegs aside, movies are now available on DVD very very soon after their theatrical runs. There is absolutely no sense, as there was a number of years ago, that if you don't see something in the theater, you will wait forever to see it. LONG LONG LONG ago, it was actually a semi-noteworthy event when a movie would pop up on network TV, or on HBO. Now - yawn! So you KNOW you will soon be able to see just about any movie, in your home, with no hassles, for a fraction of the cost of going to the theater.

I admit... increasingly, I decide what to see on the big screen based on the impact of actually SEEING it on the big screen. If the movie involves spectacle, big effects, etc, I am more inclined to make the effort and lay out the $ to go to the theater. Otherwise...if even marginally on the fence...wait for the DVD.

However...while folks rightly mention the hassles one can encounter in a theater (people talking, acting like jerks, etc), I do think there CAN be something special about seeing a movie with a big audience, especially early in a movie's run. It can add to the fun, the excitement... it feels more like an event (or, it can!). Doesn't apply to every movie, certainly, and yes, definitely offset by the "jerk factor" at times, but I do think there is sometimes a positive element to seeing a movie with an audience.

Shadow


Myrddin • Dec 11, 2007, 10:13am •
Price of an average DVD = $20
*Pros = can rewatch it as much as I want
*Cons = have to wait 6 months to see film

Price of an average night out at the movies (2 people) = $20 (or $35 now that we need a baby sitter)
*Pros = enjoy theater experience (unless there are jerks sitting behind us)
*Can see a movie sooner
*Cons = The jerks sitting behind us

So, yeah. We hardly go out to the movies anymore. Our widescreen HD TV and home theater system give almost the same experience, costs less, I can have a beer or two during the movie in addition to what ever snacks I want, and all from my own couch.

We saw two movies in the theater last summer (HP5 and Bourne), and that was only because my mother-in-law was in town to baby sit.


rgtchtiger • Dec 11, 2007, 10:22am •
I always thought that rising ticket prices at theaters were the result of bigger budgets for films. Studio X distributes a film that cost close to $200 million to make. This same studio charges theater chains a certain amount of money to show the movie in the chain. The chains can either pay the studio or decline if the studio charges too much. As budgets keep getting bigger and bigger for movies and the studios charge more and more to the theater chains, the theaters have to charge more per ticket as a result. Those ticket prices all go back to the studio, and the theaters have to then charge more for concessions for them to make money.

All in all, it's basically a domino effect.

lazerman • Dec 11, 2007, 11:08am •
I watched GC last night and I totally loved it, and I was thankful to see the Foreign markets doiung well enough, it will help them make a sequel to it.

I am impressed with the debate here today, and all are valid points, but for me, seeing a movie IN a theatre is very important to me, and WHEN you see it will most certainly help prevent "The Jerks behind us" from happening. I consider myself a Professional movie goer, as friends of mine pay me a small fee to wait in major line ups and hold seats, mostly on opening nights. and THAT is the BEST time to see a film. With people that dedicated to wanting to see it, you will have agood time. When in a Good Crowd of filmgoers, the experience is amazing, making a mediocre film into a GREAT one! :-)

case in point, STAR WARS. I never saw EPISODE 4 in the theatre, only at my towns library in 1981, but when I saw it on opening night in 1997 for the 20th aniversary, I laughed hard at parts I never realised were funny, and it made that movie Special to me all over again.

The Movie theatre is THE place to see movies, you can have all the technology you want, but unless you are waatching it on 35 mm film, with a 40X80 foot screen, you are not getting the true theatre experience. And then there is the crowd. Good ones make movie watching a better experience, and bad ones ruin them, like the time I watched the Simpsons Movie on a Sunday Matinee . . Kids behind me yelling about the funny stuff for 5 minutes after 5 more jokes have gone by, and the dude to my left who fell asleep half way through. . . and started to SNORE . . I woke him up . . he left 2 minutes later . . .

Yes I ended up seeing it again that night, but with a GOOD crowd, and a parent who KNEW how to train his child for movie watching. Then it become a fun film!

But in the end, the movie makers have to ask, what do they want more? More money or more people to see there films properly?

Good thing I have access to a Movie Rewards program that gives me one free movie for every 10 I watch .. :-)

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