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Watchmen doesn’t open until Friday, but online ticket sales are on fire. MovieTickets just reported that the pic is outpacing Zack Snyder’s previous 300 at 4-to-1 right now. but 300 sold more than 80% of its advance tickets on the Wednesday and Thursday prior to its release. Meanwhile, purchases for 124 IMAX screens now account for 1/3 of all Watchmen online ticket sales. Overall Watchmen ticket sales doubled Sunday to Monday. Fandango is already seeing the film snap up 61% of the online ticket site’s sales. Dozens of Thursday midnight showtimes for the film are already sold out from New York City to Dallas to San Diego.
Over the weekend, Fandango surveyed moviegoers planning to screen Watchmen
– 60% have read the Watchmen graphic novel
– 85% say the online clips and trailers made them more excited to see the movie
– 57% plan to see Watchmen with a group of friends
– 71% are planning a get together before or after the movie
– 85% had seen director Zack Snyder’s previous movie 300 on the big screen
– 73% are male
– 65% are aged 18 to 34
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Maybe I’m just freaked out by the Jonas bros thing last weekend. Maybe it’s the dismissive reviews (and buzz) so far. But I just don’t see “Watchmen” headed to “300″ numbers anymore. I think it may do a big Friday, like $30-40 mil, and then fizzle through the weekend and quickly disappear. Am I crazy?
And they hated it.
Thank God, for once, you didn’t start this article by declaring “I don’t do geek.” Maybe you finally figured out that “geek” is now the MAINSTREAM.
100% have never known the pleasures of physical love with another living person.
Yay, I can’t wait to see Watchmen this Friday or Saturday!
I sincerely hope this flick will soar. As weird and convoluted it may seem at times it still remains a pretty bold story about the nature of our existence. And I think its boldness will either turn people off or make those who appreciate the level of craft in the graphic novel love it even more.
It’ll have a nice opening weekend thanks to an expensive marketing campaign (the virals on youtube are the best) and then will drop like a rock next weekend.
This is from someone who bought these as they came out back in the day and wondered for years how a film would look. That being said, I worry on the acting and overall accessibility of a very very narrow genre: post modern super hero.
I worry on the acting and overall accessibility of a very very narrow genre: post modern super hero.
Surely this will underperform the peerless exemplars of modernist super-hero – for that we need to refer to the runaway successes of Fantastic Four and Superman Returns. Ahem.
I had the opportunity to see the show at Edwards AFB this weekend (somehow they always manage to lay their hands on a print of these big shows beforehand…). It’s an excellent film, absolutely on par with Dark Night, and I, having read the book, was thoroughly impressed, and my brother, having not read the book, really dug it and didn’t have any problem following the story. I can’t account for the trickle of bad reviews; it’s a difficult film to watch at times, but so was Dark knight, and 300 for that matter. The acting is excellent: Rorschach in prison is worth the price of admission, and no Nikki that’s not a spoiler, promise!
Some observers may be caught off guard by the certainty of repeat business built in to this thing (a much bigger factor in Dark Knight’s grosses than I’ve ever seen reported) but significant critical support will be needed to sustain anything beyond that (which will still be very significant). Factor in the wasteland at the box office for the near term and potential is high. I don’t think 100M+ after 2 weekends is out of the realm of possibility.
& 100% don’t know what to do with a date.
Francis Urquhart- Out of touch much?
Call me crazy, I don’t think the $1B box office for the Dark Knight was entirely thanks to virgin teenaged boys taking their right hands on a special night out to the multiplex.
And while I’m not a huge fan of Zack Snyder’s, this movie’s stirring a lot of interest. Just because your idea of a good night is having a glass of warm milk while you watch your Dallas reruns, there’s no reason for the hating on alleged geek-fare. Especially as, was mentioned above, Geek is becoming very much mainstream these days, chief.
I’ve seen it and think that the film is sensational. The most original studio picture in many a year. That’s one long midnight show though since the film is close to 3 hours!
Definitely NOT at the movies for this one, and I am a card-carrying geek.
Francis @6:16am – funniest f’n thing I have seen in a while…I’m still laughing. Thanks.
Call me crazy, but is it in the realm of possiblility that we can see this have a $100M+ opening weekend. There is no other big blockbusters out there right now, and because of the recession, everything (except Jonas Bros.) is performing way beyond expectations. We are obviously not going to see Dark Knight numbers here, but maybe closer to Iron Man numbers. Possibly an opening somewhere around $103-$104M. I would not be shocked.
Why would it drop like a rock next weekend — it looks to me like this has weeks and weeks of nothing remotely like it coming out. I say 250 domestic is easily in its reach.
Dark Knight was a word of mouth hit AND a repeat business hit, and Watchmen has a similar appeal.
Watchmen as a graphic novel is about 300 times more popular than ’300′ the graphic novel.
I’m a comic book fan and read the graphic novels but still thought the acting was TERRIBLE and the plot towards the end just gets tired. All this pre-sale hype are just the core fans…I REALLY doubt it’s going to expand to broad based appeal like 300.
Those who have seen it all have the same reaction, including me. You enjoy it if you know the graphic novel…everyone else was ripping on it at the screening I went to last week.
Now that Fox is getting a piece of the Watchman gross I was wondering if they were going to pour any advertising dollars into the film?
The popularity of a comic relative to other comics should never be considered a factor in the success of the FILM versions; most of the audience for these things consists of that strange crowd that thinks that MOVIES made of comics are “cool”, but who never read comics themselves… a weird offshot of the geek-hating crowd Nikki prides herself on being a member of.(Hey, will you at least concede that comics people still talk about decades after they were published are probably better than the film versions that are forgotten a year after they came out? )
300 wasn’t a success due to the graphic novel — it was a success because it a) had an original cool look and b) was a cathartic release and thinly veiled War on Terror movie. It was an unapologetic West vs the Barbarians. Dozens of movies bashing America and say, oh we deserve it, the Islamists are misunderstood, yada, yada, yada — they all tanked.
One movie, 300, showed one of the great moment in Western civilization. It portrayed Western civilization as heroic, as superior to the eastern despots and their traditions of submission — and it did great business.
Maybe it IS a faithful adaption of the graphic novel (which I’ve never read) but for a Watchmen virgin like me it was lots of flash and overall very unsatisfying. The female hero was totally miscast. I cared NOTHING for these characters. And the plot started out cool but just turned out silly, even for a superhero movie. A very interesting idea and kudos to them for trying something different here, but different doesn’t always mean good. I predict it will soar opening weekend with fanboy fever, then take a nose dive. I think some people raving about it online are being bought off too, but to each his own…
Considering the lack of stars, I’m glad this is going to do well. Maybe Hollywood will quit paying $60 million to hack actors like Cruise and Nicholson.
Theaters are advocates for graphic novel/comic book adaptations not only for the fanboy ticket sales, but also the blockbuster concession sales they elicit. I mean, these lard-butt fanboy saps practically unhinge their jaws and swallow tubs of popcorn, buckets of Coke, and crates full of Milk Duds whole over the course of two hours.
It’s a conspiracy between studios and theaters to stymie any sexual attraction to these young men, otherwise they’d be spending their money on dates…with actual girls.
And for those fanboys who claim they’re fornicating..with an actual girl, I’m getting the image of a blubbery elephant seal clumsily bobbing itself up and down upon some reluctant cow.
It’s no secret that Watchmen continues to track awkwardly. It’s base is men over 25. Males under 25 aren’t as interested. Tracks poorly with women of all ages.
Let me get this straight. Watchmen is opening in 3,600+ locations. Fandango claims 61% of its ticket sales are for Watchmen. 33% of all Watchmen online ticket sales are for 124 locations – out of 3,600+.
That isn’t very impressive for online ticket sales in general or Watchmen in particular. 33% of all online ticket sales are for 124 locations out of 3,600 for a three-hour movie? That’s not a lot of shows. That’s not really that much interest considering none of that is going to be repeated for week 2.
A $60 million weekend seems to be the current favorite over/under. Some like $75.
I think a $45 million weekend with a 60% week 2 drop is more realistic.
After seeing all of the virals and behind the scenes footage, I keep shuttling between wary and hopeful, so I’ve decided upon being “cautiously optimistic” about this film.
Just don’t f-up any of Rorschach’s scenes and I’ll be mollified.
(And I am going to admit to getting chills seeing some of the footage. Some of it looks absolutely brilliant and true to the original graphic novel.)