Chat With Lyra
Dakota Blue Richards, star of The Golden Compass will be chatting LIVE with fans at Scholastic Kids on Wednesday December 19 at 6:30pm ET.
Be sure to enter their sweepstakes for a chance to win great prizes.
The Golden Compass
Reality is threaded throughout the most fantastic of the fantasy films,
Fantasy films? There’s truth in there too
-Los Angeles Times, Sam Adams
Given a choice between Iraq and fairyland, it’s clear where moviegoers would prefer to spend time.
Despite the glut of politically themed movies on offer this season, audiences have embraced frothier fare: “The Golden Compass,” set in a parallel universe inhabited by comely witches and talking animals; fluffy musical romance “Enchanted,” which brings classic Disneyana to modern-day New York; and the dark animated adventure “Beowulf,” rife with decaying monsters and burnished gold dragons.
“Compass,” in fact, was No. 1 at the box office over the weekend. It pushed “Enchanted” to second place by earning an estimated $26.1 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales, New Line Cinema reported Sunday.
And all this comes on the heels of the huge success of the “Lord of the Rings” films, the “Harry Potter” franchise and 2005’s “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”
A successful fantastic film artfully mixes the familiar and the fanciful. For all their extraordinary elements, the worlds of Harry Potter and Middle-Earth feel tactile and inhabitable, often more so than the airbrushed universe of the X-Men or Superman. Wedding childlike wonder to grown-up themes (with some teen-delighting combat along the way), the result, studios hope, is a demographic smart bomb whose revenue-generating powers never go out of style.
Golden Choice
The Broadcast Film Critics Association have honored The Golden Compass with nominations for the 13th annual Critics’ Choice Awards. Nominations include:
- Best Young Actress - Dakota Blue Richards
- Best Family Film (Live Action)
The 13th annual Critics Choice Awards will air live on VH1, January 7.
#1 In 7 Territories
In addition to the UK debut of $1.9 million, out-grossing The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’s opening day in 2005, The Golden Compass ranked #1 in seven territories: U.K., Spain, France, Finland, Norway, Thailand and the Philippines.
The Golden Compass will be featured on 11,000 screens in 30 territories worldwide.
The film opens tomorrow Dec. 7.
Ebert: ‘Compass’ Takes Fantasy World In Right Direction
****
“…The Golden Compass is a wonderfully good-looking movie, with exciting passages and a captivating heroine…”
-Roger Ebert, Universal Press Syndicate
The Golden Compass
The Golden Compass opens big at the UK box-office, pulling in $1.9 million, according to Variety.
The opening day result is the biggest first day figure for Entertainment Film Distributors outside the wildly successful “The Lord of the Rings” franchise.
