From Box Office Mojo:
Watchmen disintegrated 67 percent to an estimated $18.1 million for $86 million in ten days, trailing all previous superhero movies that debuted in the $50 million range through the same point. For perspective, 300, which Watchmen was oft compared to, fell 54 percent to $32.9 million in its second weekend (for a $129.2 million total), and, among major comic book movies, only Hellboy II: The Golden Army and Hulk had steeper drop-offs.
I figured (more or less ) that this would happen when I watched it last week. People that wanted to see Watchmen went the first week. Those who liked the movie and wanted to see it again know that it will likely see a DVD release sooner rather than later. When a substantial amount of money is spent promoting a movie for theatrical release and the movie fails to break even at the box office, studios generally tend to release movies on DVD fairly quickly. The longer they wait, the more money they have to spend promoting the movie all over again.
Personally, I cannot wait for Watchmen to be released on Blu-ray. I agree with fellow Hagerstown-area blogger Steve Shives in that I think it’s the finest superhero movie ever made.
I guess this means Watchmen will be the first and last nearly three-hour, R-rated superhero movie and maybe that’s not such a terrible thing. What other superhero story could be turned into an R-rated movie, The Boys? Please.
Steve
/ March 16, 2009Say it, brother!
Hey, I recently purchased and watched the Watchmen Motion Comic, and it only increased my respect for both the film and the original comic. But another thing I’m now persuaded the film does better than the comic is the “return” of Dr. Manhattan at the end, when he reappears as a giant and smashes his hand through the ceiling. That scene is done so much better in the film, and I think it’s just a matter of giving Doc a little bit more to say. Him coldly telling Veidt that “the world’s smartest man poses no more of a threat to me than its smartest termite” is one of the most thrilling moments in the film for me, and the equivalent moment in the comic just seems to go by too fast.
That Dr. Manhattan scene in the film reminds me of one of my favorite moments in literature, in The Odyssey, when Odysseus kills Antinous and then tells the rest of the suitors who have taken over his house and wooed his wife in his absence that “there will be killing until the score is paid.” Doc Manhattan isn’t quite that bloodthirsty, but there’s still the feeling of a long-overdue reckoning coming. Any film that can remind me of that scene from The Odyssey is doing something right.