More Failing Movies

There were another couple of movie failures this weekend. The Golden Compass has been heavily promoted as a "family film", but has been widely panned by church groups given that the guy who wrote the story was openly atheistic and had stated that his goal in life was to "kill God". I saw one email from a very large church that was sent to every church member condemning the film and the message contained therein. Here's a report on how it did this weekend:

There was no Saturday miracle surge for New Line. The Golden Compass, an effects-laden family film starring Nicole Kidman with a reported budget of $200M, received a modest 16% increase from its opening day, posting an estimated $10.2M on Saturday. Assuming a Sunday drop of 33%, Compass will finish its opening weekend with a disastrous $25.84M.

They'll never make back the budget on that one.

Oh, and there was another Iraq-themed movie that opened this weekend. Let's see how it did:

Finally, another Iraq War-themed movie has crashed and burned. Grace is Gone (MGM/Weinstein) starring John Cusack, with an original score by Clint Eastwood, mustered only a $1,089 PTA on Friday at four locations with a projected weekend PTA of $3,594. It will be very difficult for the Weinsteins to pick this film up from the mat, and that will make an Eastwood Oscar nomination for Best Original Score an uphill climb.

So far anti-Iraq war movies have a perfect record. They've all tanked.