Movie House to Blame for Failure?

The Golden Compass was a gigantic flop in the United States. The film only brought in $70 million in the states, which didn't even cover half of the $180 million production budget, according to an article written by Ed Perkis for Cinemablend.com. Contrary to the poor numbers states-side, the film did incredibly well in other countries, expected to "gross as much as $400 million worldwide." 

Perkis believes that the reason the film did so poorly in the U.S. but so well elsewhere is not because of the horrible critical reviews or America's "Puritanical reaction to the anti-religious mania of the movie", but because of which movie house distributed the film.

"New Line sold off foreign rights during the production phase and the foreign distributors did a better job marketing the film and keeping it in theaters. Even in heavy Catholic countries, like Italy, the movie did fairly well because it was pushed as a family film rather than a Lord of the Rings style fantasy adventure. It also played longer despite a slow start."

When marketing a film, it is important to cater to your audience and tailor your marketing plan to fit each individual area. Without doing so, a great film can fail miserably.