Obscure golden compasses

Well, it seems like we might not have to go through another Hollywood version of Pullman's works. General panic/worry has ensued over the Golden Compass' takings during its first weekend. Basically, it fared better than Eragon (but only by $4m) and far worse than the first LotR film (by $20m), and whilst opening weekends may not give the whole story (Stardust only took $9m)[1], it's pretty embarrassing. So, this casts doubt on whether they'll do the sequels. I think it will be interesting to have this situation - it reminds me of the LotR cartoons, however I suspect that the rights will have an annoying thing of hanging around, stopping anyone from doing other versions. If that's the case, then I'm glad I saw it in cinematic form, if only because of the daemons.

[1] Figures taken from slashfilm.com