A $26 million opening weekend is normally cause for joy, but not when the film in question, The Golden Compass, cost upwards $180 million (according to some, way upwards). Vulture has a sharp take on where the script went wrong--like me, they were astonished by how short the final product was--and The Atlantic's Hanna Rosin offers the longer backstory of the transition from page to screen here.
--Christopher Orr