1. God, power and money

Comment #137971 by Durandal on March 3, 2008 at 5:02 pm

Well the God I believe in doesn't need cash, mister . - Bono

2. 'Boycott Worked': Compass Flops - Opening Weekend $26 Million; Narnia $63 Million

Comment #97027 by Durandal on December 11, 2007 at 9:55 am

Okay... I don't quite know what to make of the smarmy comments, but you guys continue to seemingly misunderstand numbers and their implications when it comes to filmmaking and its costs. Also, some of you are getting the numbers wrong, still.

U.S. take over a THREE DAY WEEKEND: $26M

Overseas take: $55M (some say $51M, though)

That is a total of $81M worldwide. It's not $81M just overseas, it's $81M total. And it is bad, if you know anything about where this money goes and what the studio was expecting, this is bad. It's not like $81M is going to three or four individuals. There are thousands of hands in the pie, and everyone wants back what they put in. The opening weekend is the make or break weekend. That didn't use to be the case, but in this day and age, with all the competition from video games, DVD, HD television, if your film fails the first weekend, it will take more than a year for that investment to show positive returns, from DVD or otherwise.

Remember, 50% of the take will drop next week, and it will only go down from there. In the meantime, all the money has been spent, and you're still spending the money you have now on other projects. I Am Legend and Alvin and the Chipmunks opens next week, and as unfortunate as it sounds, they will most likely be the #1 and #2 films respectively.

I am really not trying to make a case for Donahue, but you have to call a spade a spade. The film has not performed, no matter if it was some dumb boycott or not.

3. 'Boycott Worked': Compass Flops - Opening Weekend $26 Million; Narnia $63 Million

Comment #96974 by Durandal on December 11, 2007 at 7:29 am

Well, that's a parallel trend that may also meet its comuppance soon enough. But Iron Man is looking amazing for next summer, don't count that one out.

4. 'Boycott Worked': Compass Flops - Opening Weekend $26 Million; Narnia $63 Million

Comment #96967 by Durandal on December 11, 2007 at 7:19 am

Some people seem to have difficulty understanding the box office and what a certain amount of money over a period of time means.

A $26M take in the first weekend (that's three days by the way, not two [Fri. Sat. and Sun.]) for a film that cost in the neighborhood of $180M is an outright loser. It doesn't matter if it was the "#1 grossing movie of the weekend." That only means it made ever so slightly more than whatever else was playing that week.

Also, this film opened on 5,600 screens nationwide. That is heavy, heavy distribution. And $26M is not much to show for that. This film was supposed to be BIG. It did not deliver.

There are several reasons for this, and the boycott probably had almost nothing to do with it. Since 2001 we have had fantasy adaptations practically shoved down our throats. The wild success of LOTR and the Potter films opened the floodgates for anything and everything with a wizard and some bizarre creatures running around.

Also, some of the more successful adaptations that have come before Golden Compass have been in the public consciousness for almost fifty years (in the case of LOTR and Narnia) or have caught on like wild fire for the general public (Potter). The Pullman books simply do not share this pedigree.

We're in the midst of a fantasy burnout. People are simply getting tired of all of these fantasy adaptations that continue to offer little more than diminishing returns. (And there are still more on the way!). It has almost nothing to do with God, boycotts, or atheism. It has to do with studios making the same lame-brain decisions they've been making with predicable regularity since the establishment of the studios.

I understand the desire here to negate the assertions of Mr. Donahue. The fact is that he is wrong about the boycott destroying the box office of this movie. But he is absolutely right that it is a failure. To argue otherwise comes across as misplaced desire to just prove another priest wrong about something. Look at the facts and realize that this movie has simply failed with the majority of audiences.

More B.O. info:

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=goldencompass.htm

http://www.chud.com/index.php?type=news&id=12842

5. 'Boycott Worked': Compass Flops - Opening Weekend $26 Million; Narnia $63 Million

Comment #96553 by Durandal on December 10, 2007 at 5:46 pm

This movie didn't make money because the market has been overloaded with obtuse, bloated fantasy films since LOTR (it was the catalyst, though, not part of the problem; LOTR is awesome, of course). They're wringing out the children's book section for every last drop of cash-in potential.

It has nothing to do with the message or any boycott; we're in the midst of a fantasy meltdown. It happened in the eighties, it will happen again. Plus the movie just plain sucks. Not always a reason that a movie loses at the box-office, but sometimes reason breaks through to the masses.

And believe me, only $26M over an entire weekend at this time of year for this kind of overhyped blockbuster is utter failure. No other way to slice it. Also realize that this movie will lose 50% of its take next weekend. Golden Compass 2 will be DTV or non-existent.

6. Bah, Hanukkah

Comment #94298 by Durandal on December 5, 2007 at 7:51 am

Hitchens has some points, but he wraps them up in such a mean-spirited derogatory cadence that I don't understand how anyone "enjoyed" reading this. As much as I would like everyone to wake up one morning and realize how silly their religious beliefs might be, I'm not looking for a smackdown, or a lot of "I told you so" moments. I'm not here to laugh and point at people because of their beliefs. This could have been toned down a bit.

7. You big, fat pile of bacteria

Comment #84770 by Durandal on November 3, 2007 at 1:53 pm

Great article. I'll saute some earthworms with capers in a white wine sauce tonight! Why not?

8. Letters: Theology has no place in a university

Comment #74961 by Durandal on October 1, 2007 at 8:11 am

Acleron wrote = "Durandal Please can you elucidate the difference between teaching a completely irrational system based on a belief derived from ancient writings (creationism/ID) and a completely irrational system based on a belief derived from ancient writings (theology)."

At a very, very base level, there isn't much of a difference, especially the way you describe. But the study of Theology as a major for undergrads and grad students at a university is far more complex and in depth than a high school class about how the world came into existence.

There are also two very different sets of individuals and organizations to battle against when going to the table in protest depending on whether you're butting heads with a local school district or a professional academic institution.


Also, please forgive my formatting I'm brand new and just figuring out this comment system.

9. Letters: Theology has no place in a university

Comment #74943 by Durandal on October 1, 2007 at 7:36 am

It's just a little too early to call for the banning of theological studies from universities. Getting the irresponsible study of Creationism or I.D. out of public schools is one thing, but trying to take on an entire legitimate academic program that has been a part of professional education for centuries is quite another.

The thing about a university, even a public one, is that the students choose their curriculum, and therefore, in an incremental way, "vote" on what programs exist at a school. Change can be made merely through economic and social means. When enough people are choosing other disciplines in place of theology, it will lose funding and atrophy on its own. This would take a very, very long time, however, an aggressive campaign to rip theology out of that world would be disasterous in my opinion.