{"id":12005,"date":"2007-12-14T19:56:18","date_gmt":"2007-12-15T02:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2007\/12\/14\/flop.html"},"modified":"2014-11-10T08:30:02","modified_gmt":"2014-11-10T15:30:02","slug":"flop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/12\/14\/flop.html","title":{"rendered":"Flop?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Les<\/a> points out the inevitable crowing<\/a> over The Golden Compass <\/em>opening not as well as expected — crowing, in this case, by the Catholic League, which had organized a boycott over the film’s ostensible anti-religion message (or, since that was largely elided from the movie, over the fear that it would entice kids into the books ostensible anti-religion message).<\/p>\n

The Catholic League, which organized a boycott of the controversial film, as it would lead children to reading the anti-Christian books, saw the poor box office showing as evidence of a successful boycott. League President Bill Donohue said, “Our goal was to stop ‘The Golden Compass’ from meeting box office expectations, and we succeeded.”<\/p>\n

Donohue suggested that considering ‘The Golden Compass’ “cost $180 million to produce, and another $30-$40 million in advertising, the inescapable conclusion is that our boycott worked.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Because, of course, no movie with a large budget and big advertising campaign has ever<\/em> flopped without direct action by the Catholic League.<\/p>\n

Donohue concluded: “Let this be a lesson to militant atheists like Pullman: keep your hollow beliefs to yourself. …”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Right.  People who want to proclaim their beliefs have no business writing books about them, or movies, or, y’know, press releases …<\/p>\n

“… And ease up on demonizing Catholicism-no other religion has done more to promote human rights, science and goodwill.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And we’ll economically crush (and, ironically, demonize) anyone who claims otherwise!  Bwah-ha-ha!<\/em><\/p>\n

Now, never mind that perhaps the film just isn’t that good.  Or that, perhaps, if it really filed away a major theme of the books it simply made it a less-than-engaging film.  The critics haven’t been all that kind to it (including sources that don’t seem to be parroting Catholic League fliers).<\/p>\n

Or maybe it didn’t take in as much in its first weekend as Narnia<\/em> ($26.1MM vs $65.5MM) because, oh, I don’t know, CS Lewis’s books are hugely more famous and well-known than Pullman’s<\/em>.    Naaah, that couldn’t have anything to do with it.<\/p>\n

Or maybe fantasy films are fading as a post-LOTR<\/em> genre (sadly).  Gaiman’s Stardust<\/em> had only mediocre box office, even though the Catholic League didn’t boycott it as far as I know.<\/p>\n

Or maybe it was just a crappy time to release a film.  I mean — going up against Disney’s Enchanted<\/em> was going to be an uphill struggle, regardless.  Heaven knows I didn’t have a chance to go see it.    And, for all that, Golden Compass<\/em> did actually win<\/em> the weekend, and did as well as the #2-5 films combined.  And it’s going gangbusters overseas, apparently (at least in its opening week).<\/p>\n

I hope it actually hangs out in the theaters a few weeks longer — I’m actually interested in seeing it, regardless of the press or box office.  In fact, there are a few movies coming up in the next few weeks I’m seriously thinking of carving out some time to see …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Les points out the inevitable crowing over The Golden Compass opening not as well as expected — crowing, in this case, by the Catholic League, which had organized a boycott over the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[263,41,27,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disney","category-media-movies","category-religion","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":27454,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/04\/19\/the-vagina-manger-dialogue.html","url_meta":{"origin":12005,"position":0},"title":"The Vagina Manger Dialogue","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 19-Apr-12 7:43am","format":false,"excerpt":"So I heard about the \"Catholic League\" (Bill Donohue) having a hissy fit about a Jon Stewart segment, which actually led Margie and me to track down the piece on our DVR (thanks for giving it more publicity, Catholic League!).While not the most hysterical Daily Show bit I've ever seen,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16875,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/03\/09\/unblogged-bits-for-tue-9-mar-2010-800pm.html","url_meta":{"origin":12005,"position":1},"title":"Unblogged Bits for Tue, 9 Mar 2010, 8:00PM","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 9-Mar-10 6:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... Graham condemns Keep America Safe\u2019s attacks on DOJ lawyers as \u2018shameful.\u2019 - Good for him. The Disgraceful Bill Donohue - Moral equivalency can be clearly boneheaded. On the other hand, dismissing massacres by \"your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131081,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/07\/14\/the-idaho-voyeur-case-doesnt-seem-to-prove-anything.html","url_meta":{"origin":12005,"position":2},"title":"The Idaho voyeur case … doesn't seem to prove anything","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 14-Jul-16 3:35pm","format":false,"excerpt":"While I've already seen some crowing and\/or pontificating from the religious Right about this, it doesn't seem to make any sense in terms of any dire told-you-so threat having been \"proven.\" A transgender woman is accused (and appears to have confessed) to illicitly taking pictures\/video of another woman in a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33157,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/12\/whats-love-got-to-do-with-it-nothing-says-bill-donohue.html","url_meta":{"origin":12005,"position":3},"title":"What’s love got to do with it? Nothing, says Bill Donohue","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 12-Apr-13 12:32pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Bill Donohue, self-appointed lay defender of his idea of the Catholic faith, decrees that marriage is \"not about love\" and \"not about making people happy,\" but\u00a0wholly\u00a0about \"having a family\" -- by which I assume in context he means spawning children -- and that this is known by everyone \"in their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12611,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/03\/11\/book_review_the_golden_co.html","url_meta":{"origin":12005,"position":4},"title":"Book Review: The Golden Compass","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 11-Mar-08 6:07pm","format":false,"excerpt":"After\u00a0somewhat enjoying the movie, and being a bit torqued over the vehement condemnation of the source books by various religious conservatives, I really wanted to like this book series. Well,...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11924,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/12\/30\/movie_review_the_golden_c.html","url_meta":{"origin":12005,"position":5},"title":"Movie Review: The Golden Compass","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 30-Dec-07 5:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"We all went out to the movies this afternoon.\u00a0 Katherine and Alex (and Ginger) saw Alvin & the Chipmunks.\u00a0 Nick and Mary and Margie and I saw The Golden Compass....","rel":"","context":"In "Movies"","block_context":{"text":"Movies","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-movies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/goldencompass.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12005"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47499,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12005\/revisions\/47499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}