Dec 17 2007 'I Am Legend' Wins Weekend, 'Alvin' Does Far Too Well
1. I Am Legend - A massive budget, computer effects, and the Fresh Prince are always a surefire hit, bringing in $76.5 million. Now if someone could only explain why.
2. Alvin and the Chipmunks - With a $45 million weekend, it's finally the definitive proof that there is no God. Or if there is, he loves shit-eating jokes, which might be worse.
3. The Golden Compass - This weekend, America made an important choice: talking polar bears or talking chipmunks? In short, the polar bears lost, making only $9 million, and immediately blew it all on fish.
4. Enchanted - Seriously, this is still making $6 million a weekend? How many talking animal movies is it going to take to knock this out of the top five?
5. No Country for Old Men - If you know how good the Coen Brothers' latest is, it will infuriate you to know that, with $3 million, it made 15 times less than Jason Lee's computer-animated castration.
Weekend Box Office [Box Office Mojo]
Dec 10 2007 Weekend Box Office: 'Golden Compass' Wins, Still Does Horribly
1. The Golden Compass - A disappointing $26.1 million weekend proves it takes more than Nicole Kidman, epic battles, and armored CGI polar bear fights to bring in audiences. It also takes a giant robot polar bear that totally eats the shit out of every other polar bear.
2. Enchanted - I can't figure out why America paid $10.7 million to see a fairy tale princess in the real world when we've already had one. Rest in peace, Diana!
3. This Christmas - Why talk about the $5 million weekend gross when Chris Brown could sing about it?
4. Fred Claus - $4.7 million worth of recommendations to not see Fred Claus.
5. Beowulf - After taking in another $4.4 million, what's next for Beowulf? Answer: NEOwulf!
Honorable Mention: Juno only made $420,000, but it only played on seven screens, so that's nutso.
Weekend Box Office Results [Box Office Mojo]
Dec 4 2007 Five Unappetizing Minutes of 'The Golden Compass'!
Yahoo's preview of the first five minutes of The Golden Compass comes off like an appetizer sampler at Applebee's, a sad, unfulfilling attempt at whetting my appetite with blandness and some fancy garnish that somehow manages to be both not enough and too much, all at once.
Am I meant to be most impressed that it takes half the time to explain that, in this world, there's some kind of golden compass that does something very non-specific (finds hidden things?), that children speak through dull dialogue, or that dust there is very old? At least it gives a peak at the CGI animals that house the souls of the people of this world. With uncomfortably fluid movement, they still look worse than most of the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park, but remain passable enough that a new generation, unexposed to Beastmaster, will again be begging for pet ferrets.
The Golden Compass 5-Minute Preview [Yahoo!]
Oct 10 2007 Two 'Golden Compass' Posters, Two Marketing Strategies
I love it when you can see exactly the strategy being used to sell a film to different markets. This first poster says, "With gifted and renowned actors Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman in featured roles, and led by Oscar-nominated director Chris Weitz, The Golden Compass is a layered, fantasy-rich story over an epic landscape. 'There are worlds beyond our own. The compass will show the way.'" Meanwhile...
Second poster's message: "Hey, check it out! This shit's got crazy big armored bears tearing the shit out of each other! Oh, and it's called The Golden Compass."
It goes without saying, the second is infinitely better.
Final 'Golden Compass' Posters! [Cinematical]
Oct 10 2007 New 'The Golden Compass' Trailer Fun for All Non-Jaded Ages
The Golden Compass is the kind of movie that I would have loved as a child, or even a few years ago, but with The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and a seemingly bottomless well of Harry Potter films, I'm too exhausted for another fanciful three-movie investment. It's not even just the length; it's that I'm going to have to yet again learn the rules to an entirely new world where more oddball characters chase around a MacGuffin.
That's just a polar bear, right? No, it turns out polar bears here wear armor and have the voice of Ian McKellan. And that ferret.... just a ferret? Of course not. You'd know it was a daemon if watched the sub-trailer to this trailer, "defining daemons," which explains the roles of soul-bound animals in this world. Duh.
If you have the energy, watch above, or in higher quality on Yahoo!
