The box-office reports are in, and “Watchmen” has won the weekend — though with a three-day gross of just $55.7 million, industry reports are pointing out that we’re not looking at another blockbuster on the scale of “The Dark Knight”.
I’m not entirely surprised. An R-rated, 160-minute adaptation of a property few outside the comics world will recognize was never going to compete with Batman, or even pull in Spider-Man-scale numbers. You need to go beyond the core fans for something like that. Same thing happened to the first “Hellboy”, and that was a good 50 minutes shorter.
Still, this is a solid opening, and there’s more cash to come with the international run, and after that there’s the home-video bonanza, what with all the different cuts Warner is planning to release.
And then, of course, there’s the inevitable Saturday morning spinoff.
No, not really. But it’s awesome, isn’t it?
I don’t know about that. Variety is reporting that it’s performing weaker than expected internationally as well. And as far as DVD sales are concerned, that’s all a reflection on box office and WOM, which hasn’t been particularly good so far. There’s a chance Watchmen will eventually make a profit, but it’s not looking very promising.
Isn’t it sad that taking in $55 million in 3 days is now considered a bomb?
There’s a solution to that. Stop spending so much money in the making of a film.