The first movie based on Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series of books debuts in theaters today after a fairly wide sneak preview last Saturday. Following its success with Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, New Line Cinema is hoping for another fantasy tent pole with this CG-heavy tale of wizardry in a parallel universe as adapted by director Chris Weitz (About a Boy, Antz). Being the weekend’s only wide opener, it shouldn’t have much trouble snatching the top box office spot from two-week champion Enchanted from Disney.
The Golden Compass revolves around a young girl who travels to the far north to save her best friend and encounters shape-shifting creatures, witches and other strange and enchanting characters. The cast includes newcomer Dakota Blue Richards, Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman, Eva Green, Christopher Lee and the Sir Ian McKellen and Kathy Bates (as the voices of the characters’ Daemons).
Visual effects for the film were overseen by Academy Award-nominated vfx supervisor Mike Fink (X-Men, X2: X-Men United, Road to Perdition), with Rhythm & Hues, Digital Domain, Framestore CFC, Hatch, Cinesite, Rainmaker, Tippett Studio, Peerless Camera Company, RodeoFX Digital Backlot and Matte World Digital all contributing to the show.
Already a hit in the U.K., the film earned $1.9 million on Wednesday, its first day of release. It managed to out-gross The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which opened to $1.7 million in 2005. Moreover, the film marks Entertainment Film Distributors’ highest opening outside of New Line’s Lord of the Rings franchise. In addition to the U.K., Compass currently ranks No. 1 in Spain, France, Finland, Norway, Thailand and the Philippines.
The Golden Compass opens in 3,528 theaters across North America, just barely edging out Enchanted for the broadest deployment of prints. For those who want to get a sampling of the pic before committing to buy a ticket, Yahoo has posted the first five minutes of the movie at http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/thegoldencompass.html?showVideo=1.
