The Golden Compass toned down the religious aspects of the book, angering fans, but it wasn't enough to stop the movie being called 'atheism for kids' by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. In some ways, it's a miracle that the first movie got made due to behind-the-scenes challenges, including numerous changes of directors and controversy over its anti-religion message. I believe there are enough people who see what a viable and successful franchise we have.'ĭespite Forte's best attempts, those movies never transpired. 'I will make The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. We have to make the second and the third movie,' Forte told Variety. This was a success as a family movie in most countries, it's a very strong family franchise, it won an Academy Award. 'If the movie really wasn't up to snuff, it wouldn't have done $300 million.

With an Oscar for Best Visual Effects under its belt, The Golden Compass still looked set to warrant a sequel as producer Deborah Forte defended its performance in March 2008. 'The jury is still very much out on the movie, and while it's performed very strong overseas we'll look at it early next year and see where we're going with ,' New Line co-head Michael Lynne told The Wall Street Journal. The movie's overall gross of $372.2 million made it the 13th biggest movie of 2007 and could well have led to a sequel, despite its costly budget of $180 million.īack in January 2007, Hossein Amini had been hired to write the script for The Subtle Knife and later that year, after The Golden Compass's release, the sequel was still a possibility for New Line. While The Golden Compass did underperform in the US with only $70.1 million, it performed strongly overseas with $302.1 million. You might think that just because the first movie was a bit rubbish, it didn't make enough money and that's why The Subtle Knife never happened, but that's not quite the story here.

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