Carl Icahn Now Wants ALL Of Lionsgate 
FINAL MGM BIDS DUE FRIDAY: So Who's In And … 
Action Comedy TV: Showrunner Matt Nix 
SAG National Board Approves Joint Bargaining … 
BBC Drama Unfreezes Development Money; … 
Lionsgate Board Rejects Icahn's $6/Share 
Is Betting On Box Office Good For Films? 
Marvel Still Looking For Captain America 
'Sopranos' Creator To Film Rock Drama 
LIVE-SNARKING THE 82ND OSCARS... 
'ALICE' IS A MONSTER! $116.3M Blows Past … 
Oscar Not-So-Thriller: Diller Mogul Picnic 
'Precious' Sweeps 25th Indie Spirit Awards 
Howard Stern Won't Be Next 'Idol' Judge 
Justin Theroux Readying 'Zoolander 2' For … 
WEEKLY MOVIETICKETS.COM POLL
Will Watchmen be 2009’s comic book blockbuster?
64% - Yes
36% - No
Total Votes on MovieTickets.com: 2,522
(Other comic book-based movies set to release in 2009 include X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Astro Boy, Kick-Ass, The Surrogates, and Whiteout.
WATCHMEN AWARENESS
According to over 2,500 ticket buyers polled on MovieTickets.com (February 17 – Mar. 1), 33% of males and 18% of females are aware of the film Watchmen. Additionally, awareness was strongest in the youngest demographics: under 25 (39%), 25-34 (35%), 35-44 (26%), 45-59 (19%).
TOP-5 TICKET SELLERS
MovieTickets.com’s Top-5 Ticket Sellers (March 1-4, as of 12PM PT)
1. Watchmen (55%)
2. Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience (12%)
3. Slumdog Millionaire (4%)
4. Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail (3%)
5. A Powerful Noise LIVE (2%)
Loading ...
It’s going to have a good opening weekend, but then the sales will decline. Not too many people have heard of the graphic novel, and the reviews just don’t look good at all.
It will have the biggest opening ever then drop 95% in the second weekend.
I’m a female, north of 40 who hasn’t seen any of the Batmans or Xmen or any of that comic book stuff and even I think Watchman looks interesting.
I’ll probably go see it which means to me, if they have my interest, probably a huge hit for them.
We’ll know in a week.
I will do good initially but the bottom will fall out of it when the kids realize you have to actually think about he plot.
It will have a big opening weekend, but a lot of people will be measuring it against 300’s debut. It could also suffer a big dropoff, since it appears to be dividing its (niche) audience.
With a 3,611 theatre count, I’m thinking of an opening north of $75M. Right now I will say $80M for Watchmen but it could go much higher.
Comic Blockbuster of the Year is a bit of a misnomer.
It’s “what film has the most potential to put up Dark Knight numbers?”
That film for 2009 will be Star Trek. It technically isn’t a comic property, though I could point to a couple hundred issues. It’ll be the film everyone is expecting to be a geek-boy fest, when in fact it’ll probably be the positive, escape film people will be ready for whether they realize it or not.
That’s my call, and I’m sticking to it.
The Watchmen maxi-series is now about 20 years old. Most people who flipped over it are now in their later 30s and 40s, not exactly the type of moviegoer that makes a blockbuster.
That being said, the bound collection of the comics in trade paperback form has remained in print for the two decades since then. It remains a favorite among comic fans.
It looks sharp and stylish, and the source material is very intelligent. That being said, I don’t sense any real mainstream anticipation for the film. I think it will have a strong first weekend (no surprise there), and then fall off the radar significantly.
We shall see. In any event, I’ll be there for an early matinee show on Friday here in Las Vegas. I don’t expect it to be crowded at all, though.
Wishing the best for ‘Watchmen.’
I saw the film. Zach Snyder should have his DGA card recalled. And it should be done surgically.
I doubt this movie will have a big run…I see maybe 35-40 million in the first week, then it will fall off the grid.Unlike Batman,Superman,or Spiderman, this movie doesn’t have a large built in fanbase…And really, 1/3 of Americans can’t name the three branches of government, I doubt they give a flying %$&* about Reagan era politics .
I’ll be honest, I never read the comics, not a comic book reader. However; I do kinda want to see the movie, the previews make it look good. But as usual not good enough to go see it in the theater. I’ll wait for DVD
I am not trying to be snarky- but can someone explain the fascination with comics books?
@ Enough,
The reason that ‘comic books’ are becoming the next big thing is that they captured the imaginations of so may people in their childhood, including our favorite movie makers. Now that we’ve all matured and ‘grown up’, we relish the opportunity to look at our heroes in a new light, namely that of realism. While every film asks us to suspend reality to some degree, the newer breed of ‘comic book’ film works hard to establish this in reality. It really goes back to when Singer brought us X-Men, and more importantly X2. X2 brought us the major action scenes, and presented a level of urgency in it’s establishment of empathy with characters that never would have been possible in the old view of these superheroes.
Also, I continually put comic books in quotation, as the beginning of maturing the content of comic books yielded longer and more elaborate stories called graphic novels. Sure, it’s nerdy, but the truth is that most of these graphic novels truly do transcend the level of a mere comic book. Too many people view the comic book as a collection of pages from our Sunday Morning papers.
Our obsession with visual multimedia in today’s culture (whether it be Television, Movies, or YouTube) has not hurt this fascination. I remember reading Goosebumps stories in my youth (establishing my much younger perception, and causing many to disregard this entire post…), because I was enthralled in the story. Too many parents turn on the DVD players for their young children for lack of better parenting options. I strongly believe that this has resulted in need for ‘picture stories’. Authors like Alan Moore and Frank Miller have given us the deeper stories to still make these superheroes worthwhile. And just remember (although a few years back) that “A History of Violence” is also a ‘Comic Book’ movie.
Wow… My apologies. I’m up too late with my wife as she’s finishing a paper, and I just kept going. Hope that answers some questions about this new uprising in ‘Comic Book’ films.
Dear B Hennessay!,
You are insane (yes insane) if you think that Star Trek is going to be the highest grossing opening weekend(let alone film) of the year.
The Transformers sequel is going to destroy it and frankly, so will McG’s Terminator film.
I’ve said it in the past and I’ll say it again. The MySpace visiting, Starbuck swilling teens don’t care about Star Trek. The second they see Leonard Nimoy (bless him)in the trailers they are going to be turned off.
For all the swish action packed trailers. This is still a Star Trek film.
Yours Warner Borg
I’m a huge fan of the book, and have to admit the movie wasn’t the total crap-a-palloza I was expecting, but anyone who thinks this is going to be another billion dollar payday is dreaming. Nobody is going to lose any money on it (I’d actually predict a long and profitable life for the film in multiple cuts on DVD/BluRay), but it’s not going to be the next ‘Dark Knight’ either.
1) My partner (who isn’t a comic book geek) was completely lost inside of ten minutes. Confused people don’t give good word of mouth, as a rule.
2) Yes, I do think the relentless and graphic violence is going to be a problem. I guess it was a walk in the park for Carla Guigino after ‘Sin City’, but but that rape scene still felt like gratuitous and exploitative straining for “edge”. Not much of a date film, unless you want to end that relationship PDQ.
3) While WB have been assiduously massaging the naughty bits of the nerd herd, anyone seriously want to argue they’re going to sustain audiences for any length of time?
The fascination with comic books (besides the fact that there ARE some with very good stories) is that Hollywood types can look down at the sequential images on the page and see what it might look like as a movie… as opposed to reading a novel and trying to translate it to images in their head.Movies are about images, first and foremost- and ironically, comics really AREN’T;although they can coast on pretty pictures, they need that narrative line to hold the whole enterprise together- there really isn’t the comics equivalent of “music video”-type plotless imagery- except maybe the covers…
Enough-
As someone who has a long on-again, off-again relationship with comics, there are some stories that we get attached to at a story at an early age and for some fantastical stunted-emotional growth reason, can’t let go.
For example, I have vivid memories of my grandmother buying me an issue of Detective Comics when I was six years old, and nowadays my ears still perk up when I hear about Batman. Countering this, no matter how hard I try, because of lacking that precedent, I absolutely can’t get into X-Men. That’s my reason, or a big part of it, at least.
And as for Watchmen, frankly, it’s like James Joyce had written a comic series. Not only is it an epic deconstruction of the superhero genre, it’s a deconstruction of storytelling itself. I haven’t seen the movie, but the reasons I just mentioned are exactly why I’m excited. I can think of few pieces of fiction comparable to Watchmen in terms of being the motherfucking end all of treatises on how human beings tell stories.
Couldn’t agree with you more B Hennessay. Trek will be as mainstream as they come. The geeks will rail against it because of its broad appeal, but you know what — fuck ‘em! — movies are meant to be seen by everyone. Trek was in dire need of a reboot anyway. And this looks and feels like it could be the one. As far as Watchmen is concerned, it all depends if people respond to the characters. Will they be able to relate? That’s the key. Without emotional investment in the people you just don’t have a massive hit. Plots can only take you so far.
To Warner Borg – the competition is stiff, but I stand by it: Star Trek warps past all the “comic book” movies this year.
Transformers 2? People recall the first one as being too loud – been there, done that.
Terminator 4? Captain Kirk laughs at a franchise that jumped the shark last time and one that he’ll tackle head on 3 weeks into the reboot. He’ll treat that film franchise like Yeoman Rand.
Watchmen will be lucky to pull $25mil in its second weekend.
Star Trek might very well hit that chord people want to hear: things are going to be alright. Because that’s Star Trek.
Saw the movie last night and didn’t love it. Having read the book(s), I understood the story, but felt the holes in logic, which exist in the original medium (sorry superfans, there are holes) got stretched to gaping proportions in the film. My friend who came with me to the screening hadn’t read the book and couldn’t make heads nor tails of the film’s plot. I agree that the fanboy faithful and great marketing will equal a big weekend, huge even, but fall-off will also be huge.