Opinion: Will We See GOLDEN COMPASS Sequels?
Opinion article on whether or not we’ll see sequels to The Golden Compass.
An article at Variety has drawn my attention back to Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy of books. The trilogy sits on my shelf, and I’m only one book in; I do intend to read the rest sometime soon, but the sheer weight of books that desire my attention is almost overwhelming.
After I failed to read the first Lord of the Rings book prior to the first movie, I promised myself I would not be so caught out again. For you see, as good as the Lord of the Rings movies were, they were nothing – NOTHING – compared to the books by J.R.R. Tolkien.
And the same is said for The Golden Compass; and I have to heartily agree.
The simple way that Pullman so wonderfully deconstructs the “church” is worth reading in and of itself: without any fantastical leanings. But for me, someone who is so intrinsically fascinated with the fantastical world that it so dominates my library, Northern Lights was a true joy to read.
Now I’ll state for the record that I am a Christian and thus am looking forward to the much publicized killing of god, but we’ll just have to wait and see how that one plays out.
Nevertheless, all of this is just personal rambling about a series of books that, in my opinion, are rather good. But what about the movie and what about its theoretical flop in the US and its revitalization internationally? Many people saw the US flop as the be all and end all of this possible great franchise. Of course, a self-obsessed viewpoint from Americans is not something that comes as a total shock to the rest of us.
One need only look at the fact that, though it may have only made about $70 million in the US, it has so far made – internationally - $335 million.
So what can we take from that? That American’s are more religiously arrogant and thus refused to see it on those grounds? That they don’t like fantasy movies, or have had enough? That they are simply illiterate heathens who wouldn’t know a good movie if it came up and bit them on the backside?
"We probably underperformed in the U.S., and we performed according to expectations outside the U.S. Why? It's so hard to tell. People say fantasy does much better overseas, and that the book was much better known, but I'm not sure either is true. The book was really only known in the U.K. and Australia. Most of the foreign distributors built awareness from scratch." This from producer Deborah Forte, who added that "If the movie really wasn't up to snuff, it wouldn't have done $300 million.”
I’m going to go with my last idea, but that’s only because I’m bitter. Whatever the reasoning, we can only hope that Warner Bros. will look after the franchise better than New Line did. 
Remember that the Golden Compass franchise was originally set up to be the next Lord of the Rings franchise for New Line. But with its domestic flop, it probably only added to the woes for the group that was finally folded-up and brought back under the WB banner.
So what does all of this mean for sequels? Pullman’s following two books The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass are still there, waiting. And Forte believes that they have to make them. In fact, she is very definite on them being made. "I will make 'The Subtle Knife' and 'The Amber Spyglass,'" she vows. "I believe there are enough people who see what a viable and successful franchise we have."
And for some of us, the possibility that she will get the chance is at least 50/50. While New Line’s recent slate of movies have been US-centric comedies and horrors of less than measurable quality, and thus not likely to be continued by WB; the chances of The Subtle Knife being picked up by WB International is substantial.
We’ve already seen that this trilogy will do better outside of the US, so it would make sense that it would get redirected in to that arm of WB to make the most of it. It would call for a less US-centric view of the world, which in itself is pretty tough for most American’s to pull off, but it’s possible.