How one of Nicole Kidman’s “greatest roles” helped kill a studio: “I love playing her”
Nicole Kidman is prolific. Seriously, the amount of great projects she has appeared in, both for the big and small screen, is incredibly impressive, and it makes you wonder how she finds the time to fit so much into her schedule. She must be absolutely knackered.
With that being said, her filmography isn’t perfect (is anyone’s?), and she has appeared in a few flops in her time, including The Golden Compass. The movie emerged in 2007 with British newcomer Dakota Blue Richards, who later went on to appear in Skins, playing main character Lyra, an orphan, while Kidman portrayed Marisa, a woman who harbours the secret of actually being Lyra’s mother.
Based on the book Northern Lights by Philip Pullman, the movie looked like it was going to be a family-friendly blockbuster, with magical fantasy themes fit to enrapture children and adults in need of a little whimsy. Reviews were mixed, however, and the film hasn’t really endured the test of time since it debuted 18 years ago. It’s the kind of movie you’d probably find on DVD in the charity shop for 20p and immediately ignore in your hunt for any hidden relics. This is not one of them.
The Golden Compass actually performed decently at the international box office, with a total gross of $372million, yet, in North America, it couldn’t have been more of a failure. Outside of the United States, the movie made $302,127,136, which means that just over $70m was made at the domestic box office, which is really not great for a blockbuster, especially when you consider that the movie cost double that to make. So, with the film faring well outside of home, it wasn’t completely doomed, but it was sadly too late for New Line Cinema.
The company, which had experienced significant success with The Lord of the Rings, started to face a decline in box office triumphs, and many believe that The Golden Compass led to its demise, which ultimately saw it merge with Warner Bros Pictures. The issue was that New Line Cinema missed out on the international earnings for The Golden Compass because it sold the overseas distribution rights following its failure to recoup the losses made due to an almost $200m budget.
Despite this significant failure for New Line Cinema, Kidman was proud of The Golden Compass, and she even hoped to be able to reprise her role as Marisa in sequels that inevitably failed to come to fruition. “I’m 40 years old and I’m playing some of the greatest roles I’ve had the opportunity to play in the last couple of years,” she told Hollywood.com. “With Mrs. Coulter, I hope we get to make all three films because I love playing her and obviously it’s just a tiny little bit of her right now, but if you know the rest of the trilogy, the way in which it explodes, opens up and the layers of her are peeled away, are exciting to me”.
Kidman was a huge fan of her character, adding, “I see her as very complicated so obviously she’s morally questionable at times…but there is a pulse in her heart beating her, that’s driving her to do things.”
Yet, this wasn’t enough to save the film. Money rules Hollywood, and with the losses that New Line Cinema had to face, The Golden Compass failed to turn into a series. It was probably for the best.
