Movies That Are Only Worth Watching In Theaters

Shortly before the conclusion of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, New Line Cinema started looking at other epics to adapt so they could continue reaping the rewards from a growing trend of high-concept fantasy films. That led them to Philip Pullman's Her Dark Materials trilogy, and its first novel, The Golden Compass. The studio got Chris Weitz to write and direct the production, and he assembled an excellent cast: Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman, Eva Green, Ian McChane, Sam Elliot, and Dakota Blue Richards.

Despite all the excitement behind the project, The Golden Compass flopped at the domestic box office and relied entirely on overseas markets to recover its estimated $180 million production budget. If the filmmakers didn't cut out significant portions of the film, or alter the secular themes from the source material, then perhaps audiences would have been given a proper adaptation of Pullman's novel, which could have in turn allowed the studio to continue adapting the rest of the series.

Unfortunately, that's not what happened, and all we got was a story lacking the novel's sense of wonder. Instead, The Golden Compass had to rely solely on its impressive visuals to maintain audiences' interest. But that's the beauty of the movie: its visuals, its scope, and its design were its most promising elements. It's worth seeing all of that in theaters, if you ever have the chance. But if you feel the need to leave before the end, don't worry, there really isn't much of one anyway.