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Box Office Review: Golden Compass loses its way
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For those of you who enjoyed The Golden Compass this weekend, it looks unlikely that you'll have the chance to see the second installment of the His Dark Materials trilogy. Compass only managed to take in 26.1 million dollars at the box-office, below what were already reduced expectations. Considering its budget was rumored to be above $200M, it's looking like Compass may rival Evan Almighty as the flop of the year. Shame.
Since Compass was the only major release this weekend, hold-overs staked out the rest of the top ten. Enchanted continued to show strength in its third weekend ($10.7M/$83.8M); likewise for This Christmas ($5M/$42.7M). Despite awful reviews, Vince Vaughn is still bringing in people to Fred Claus ($4.6M/$65.6M). After that it was Beowulf ($4.4M/$75.9M), No Country for Old Men ($4.2M/$28.8M), August Rush ($3.5M/$25.1M), Hitman ($3.4M/$35.8M), Awake ($3.3M/$10.7M) and Bee Movie ($2.6M/$121M).
The real action this weekend was in the limited release crowd. As expected, Atonement and Juno were the big winners, averaging $25,531 and $60,000, respectively. Both go wider later this month, with Juno poised to be a breakout hit. None of the other art house pictures were able to break out as Revolver ($2316), The Walker ($5533), Grace is Gone ($3500) and The Amateurs ($4000) all died in their debuts.
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