WATCHMEN down 24% Saturday to a likely $55.65M 3-day; Is word-of-mouth “killing the masks?”
by Steve MasonAccording to studio estimates, Watchmen (Warner Bros) will finish the weekend with an estimated $55.65M. After seizing $4.5M in Thursday midnight business, there were rumblings about $29M on opening day and an opening weekend of $70M+. When the picture scored a lesser but still good $25.2M Friday, weekend estimates were revised downward. As of Saturday morning, my projection was for $57M, and Watchmen came in even lower than that.
Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Alan Moore’s densely written graphic novel tumbled 24% from Friday to Saturday. Granted, midnight shows took a lot of steam out of the movie, but that’s a pretty significant fall given that the Males 25 Plus demo – a key one for this film – were not likely part of the Thursday fanboy crowd and, despite the current unemployment rate, were working on Friday.
Still, Watchmen has posted the all-time #6 opening for an R-rated film.
ALL-TIME TOP 10 OPENINGS FOR AN R-RATED MOVIE
1. The Matrix Reloaded – $91.7M
2. The Passion of the Christ – $83.8M
3. 300 – $70.8M
4. Hannibal – $58M
5. Sex & The City – $57M
6. Watchmen – $55.65M (studio estimate)
7. 8 Mile – $51.2M
8. Wanted – $50.9M
9. The Matrix Revolutions – $48.5M
10. Troy – $46.8M
Hardcore fans of the comic seem satisfied by this relatively faithful adaptation, but a huge swath of the movie-going public doesn’t seem to get it. Watchmen is not a popcorn movie. It is not about characters with super powers (except Dr. Manhattan) who fly around the world trying to save the world from colorful villains. I don’t think that the average 19yo guy and his Friday night date expected to see a movie set in an alternate United States where the Vietnam War was won, Watergate never happens and Nixon has an FDR-like run, the world is on the brink of nuclear annhilation and the U.S.A. is a dystopian mess. Word-of-mouth is mixed at best.
It is possible that Watchmen will finish its run with as little as $135M-$140M. That would put it in the same range as Paul Blart: Mall Cop (Sony), which passed $133M this weekend. But the Adam Sandler-produced comedy has a reported budget of $26M compared to the $120M budget for the grim tentpole. In the final analysis, Blart won’t have any meaningful revenue overseas while Watchmen has a shot at as much as $200M overseas, but the complex superhero deconstruction yarn will finish well off the $450M worldwide that Snyder’s last movie 300 delivered.
Watchmen is more an exercise of intellectualism than the brute spectacle that Under 25’s have grown accustomed to. This is a movie about ideas that happens to have a bunch of cool special effects. That’s not to say that the marketing is misleading. It’s just that there is no way to properly convey what this movie is really about in :30 and :60 TV spots.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan delivers as The Comedian
All that being said, I love this movie. Snyder and screenwriters David Hayter and Alex Tse have managed to approximate the dense plotting of Moore’s original graphic novel. When characters come to blows, the fight sequences are well-choreographed and the blood and guts on the screen don’t bother me the way it does some. Watchmen is for grown-ups. It has absolutely earned its R rating, and, honestly, the average kid wouldn’t be able to figure it out anyway.
The film provokes an interesting discussion about heroes. Whether they are glowing blue beings with the ability to move matter at their will or elected leaders making decisions for the “common good,” citizens cannot ever take things at face value. The end doesn’t always justify the means, and the means must always be questioned.
Jackie Earle Haley as Kelly Leak and all grown up
The cast here is uniformly good. The standout is Jackie Earle Haley as Rohrschach. After playing Kelly Leak in the original Bad News Bears, he fell off the map. His career was resurrected with a creepy, Oscar-nominated turn in Little Children a few years back, and now he has scored again as the snarling, angry and morally uncompromising Rohrschach. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, best known for his work on Grey’s Anatomy, is the embodiment of cynical evil as The Comedian (and he has a more-than-passing resemblance to Javier Bardem). I also enjoyed Carla Gugino as the original Silk Spectre/Sally Jupiter (and old age makeup in movies continues to improve).
Would Minutemen make a good Watchmen prequel?
March is a solid release frame for Watchmen with spring break coming in the next 6 weeks for high schoolers and college students, but the legs will not be very long for this one. My hunch is that $23M is the best case scenario for second weekend. In the end the movie will likely be profitable when the ancillaries are added, but it’s hard to imagine what a sequel would look like (even if one was attempted). The best bet might be a prequel about the Minutemen.
In other box office news, Tyler Perry continues to add to the haul for his all-time best grossing movie Madea Goes To Jail. The comedy will sell another $8.8M in tickets good for #2 for a new cume of $76.5M. Fox’s long-running French import Taken continues holding strong with $7.45M or so and a new domestic take of $118M, pushing the movie to about $200M worldwide (Luc Besson has got to be thinking sequel here). Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Seartchlight) and Paul Blart: Mall Cop (Sony) will round out the top 5.
EXCLUSIVE STEVE MASON EARLY 3-DAY ESTIMATES
1. NEW - Watchmen (Warner Bros) – $55.65M, $15,413 PTA, $55.65M cume
2. Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes To Jail (Lionsgate) – $8.8M, $4,091 PTA, $76.5M cume
3. Taken (Fox) – $7.45M, $2,470 PTA, $118.04M cume
4. Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) – $6.92M, $2,396 PTA, $125.44M cume
5. Paul Blart: Mall Cop (Sony) – $4.2M, $1,642 PTA, $133.64M cume
6. He’s Just Not That Into You (Warner Bros) – $4.02M, $1,644 PTA, $84.64M cume
7. Coraline (Focus) – $3.31M, $1,691 PTA, $65.68M cume
8. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Disney) – $3.12M, $1,363 PTA, $38.35M cume
9. Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience (Disney) – $2.75M, $2,183 PTA, $16.79M cume
10. Fired Up (Sony) – $2.6M, $1,446 PTA, $13.36M cume
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73 Comments
The Watchmen drop-off isn't that big of a surprise: It's fanbase was passionate and motivated, but in the end, not that deep. We've seen it before with South Park, etc, were fan base came out for the movie, but it didn't stick much beyond that.
Saw it yesterday with my wife and another couple. Our friends didn't know the material, but still managed to enjoy it. The husband said he'd heard a review on NPR that said it was nothing but a slasher pic with no plot. It stayed relatively faithful to the material, and I admire Zack Snyder for pulling it off quite well.
For me (and I don't know if this qualifies as a spoiler) one of the most awesome shots in the movie happens during the opening credits, with a beauty shot of a silver B-17 with the original Silk Spectre painted on the front.
I read the source material after seeing the original trailer, and although the film left me feeling horrible due to the nature of the story (the original ending was a lot better. Thanks for blowing that, Zack) I still saw the film twice and was left emotionally stunned both times. I really want this to make a profit. They said it was unfilmable, and Zack Snyder proved them wrong.
Walter Kovacs for President.
I called it. I knew it would have a disappointing opening, I knew that word of mouth would be terrible because of the misleading "bait and switch" trailers.
But…I think this is an important film, and I hope that down the line, people will recognize the positives of this movie instead of focusing on the negatives.
I never believed it would do exceptionally well in the beginning, but I still think it's going to have great legs. The advertising campaign for it has been awful, and word of mouth is going to take a while to shake out it's true audience.
I hope it has legs, I suspect it won't, and will make its money back on the super-duper-deluxe-blu-ray 6-disc box set shaped liked the owlship. I saw it Saturday afternoon, and it was full, but as has been said, this is no family film, has no major stars (although the acting is excellent) and is a very grim subject. It's an amazing adaptation, and twenty years ago it _was_ unfilmable; thankfully technology caught up to Gibbon's artistic vision, and Snyder pulled off a great job. But just because something can be filmed doesn't always mean it should. One thing I loved in the title sequence was seeing heroes in period attire and situations. It made me think that the Captain America movie could truly be magnificently done if it stays set in WWII. It's funny, but I realized while I appreciate the movie, I had the same reaction as the Lord of the Rings books and movies–good stuff but I failed to connect with the characters so there wasn't really an emotional connection to their fate.
When you include the international market and DVD sales, Watchmen will end up being very profitable. I do not foresee a sequel or prequel, though.
I went to see this with my best friend and his girl – it was his birthday present to her, as she is a huge fan of the graphic novel. As for my friend, he is enough of a fan to make it worthwhile. I think they invited me just to get me out of the house. Honestly, I can't decide if I should have stayed home or not. On one hand, I'm glad I saw it on the big screen, as smaller screens will destroy what cinematography there was; on the other hand, what the hell was that? There were high points, and it was worth the price of admission for those, but the other 2 hours were not. J. Haley definitely saved the majority of the movie for me – it's nice to see a morally uncompromisable character every once in the while, however flawed that character is.
I actually watched people leaving the theater. We went opening night to the 7:30 showing. People walked out. Seriously. I haven't seen that since Arlington Road.
If this movie makes money, it will be in the release, re-release, directors release, signed copy release, Blu-Ray release, laser disc release, digital release, in a box of Cracker Jacks release, tucked under my wiper blades release – all of which I feel are inevitable.
It's a bit of a shame really. If they had strayed slightly from the source material, and stuck a solid – and done so earlier – plot line in there, it would have been more pleasurable. As it stands, they got my ten dollars and that's enough.
I talked 2 alot of people & they all said they were not going because of all the adult material in it.I know alot of fanboys go to super hero movies but so do alot of kids & I know that as a Christian & talking 2 alot of Christian they wont go in fact I talked to, two of my friends who walked out because they didnt think it was appropriate for them to watch. Thats just some of the reasons people have avoided this movie.
I'm not sure how 'important' Watchmen is, or how truly well developed its themes, but one thing I am sure of: it's just not that entertaining. The hard core fans may get lost in it but most people will be checking their watches and upon leaving they'll say, "Good movie, wouldn't see it again, wouldn't buy the DVD, maybe rent it if I'm hard up". It's final box office won't even be half of 300.
Gotta love it when Ugly Kelly from the Bad News Bears becomes relevant again….good for Jackie Earle Haley, he was an integral part of my youth and I even took up smoking ciggys and flicking boogers at other kids because of him!
despite the profound moral confusion running through the film, i think of the scene where veidt is explaining that war is caused by lack of resources not ideology, and the twin towers are visible in the background. this was just an interesting movie. i didn't say "great". said "interesting".
for the past few years the only thing to argue about after leaving the theatre was which of us hated the movie more. we launched into discussions of politics and morality that went on for ours afterward. that alone was worth the price of the movie.
some conservative ideas, even those set up as straw men, are so powerful that they can resonate in ways the film makers never intended. never mind who won on screen. rhorscach won the audience.
Maat —
This movie is going to lose money, probably quite a bit when all is said and done, because of how the source material plays out and the economy.
It's not 2002 anymore, and DVD/Blu-Ray purchases won't save movies. Indeed DVD/Blue-Ray sales are way, way down as consumers balk at pricey Blu-Ray during a deep, lasting depression with a lot of uncertainty about their jobs and constantly rising prices, particularly food and electricity, and don't have assurance of lots of disposable income for discretionary spending.
Watchmen is maybe a rental, way down the list.
Watchmen is a terrible movie, as far as most people liking it, because it's not entertaining. It's not a movie that gives emotional uplift and triumph to the hero, it's not 300 or Gladiator where the central, likeable, and very "family" guy does indeed triumph (even if he dies).
The movie is for hard-core fanboys, a small subset of SWPL yuppies, themselves ever smaller by the moment as layoffs make them hard-scrabbling blue collar guys.
Watchmen has too many characters, none of whom save Rorschach have much of an emotional connection to the audience (and even his is limited). The bad guy wins and nobody much cares, the people seem not worth saving and the characters are all unsympathetic and nasty.
It's also fairly politically stupid. Nixon was the author of detente and the SALT talks and the man who went to China. The man who pushed "Vietnamization." Who created the EPA, Wage-Price Controls, and so on. He was at heart a New Deal Liberal in Republican clothing (which is why Liberals hated him so much). JFK was the guy who nearly blew up the world over the Cuban Missile Crisis.
But the reason Watchmen is failing is the lack of a strong leading central character the audience can take to it's heart and root for. It's instead an anarchic misanthropic story that depends on trashing versions of obscure superheros created by other writers.
Alan Moore's politics are… eccentric. It'd be a mistake to assume any one character speaks for what he feels is "right" and just as much a mistake to assume he wanted the ending to be applauded. The very fact that we have such politically diverse (and emotionally messed up) character as Rorschach and Ozymandius will give plenty of fodder to either side of the political debate, and there is no doubt that what Watchmen does best is give the reader/viewer something to chew on.
Whiskey, we pretty much agree on why it might not be a huge hit, but I think it's quite a good movie. For such a long movie I felt it was extremely well paced. (to me Dark Knight was interminable, and the less said about Return of the King's multiple endless endings the better) And while Rorschach is the best/most moral character, he's just so fundamentally weird and unlikeable that it's hard to feel really bad for him at the end. (I actually ended up liking Nite Owl much more in the movie than the book) But for such an expensive movie to have legs, it's got to pull in families and sell merchandise, and Watchmen won't do that.
read watchmen in junior high. assumed that the ending was dark in the same way 1984 was dark. sort of a cautionary tale. only later i heard what a fruitloop moore was. and met people who suggested that he meant ozymandius to be the hero of the story.
it is hard to put myself in the position of a non geek, and view it as a normal just wanting entertainment.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan reminded me a lot of a younger Powers Boothe.
Carla Gugino is way too gorgeous/sexy to hide behind all that makeup. I remember being excited that she was going to be in it. When I saw her name in the end credits, I had to ask "Who did she play? What? She was the old lady?"
Having Gugino play an old lady makes as much sense as having Jessica Alba play an invisible woman.
the picture above does not show a scene from 'Bad News Bears,' it shows the climactic bicyle race from 'Breaking Away.' The giveaway is the word "Cutters" on the T-Shirt.
Since the credits have been mentioned twice, I'll drop a link:
http://www.thinkhero.com/2009/03/07/watchmen-movi...
But if you're planning on seeing the movie, don't spoil yourself.
I loved the credits. Good stuff.
I liked it. Didn't love it. But I wil buy the DVD. And I agree that one of its problems is that its not uplifting. But I think you miss the point of the story. A lot of people will. But those who bother will find something there.
I think it will be a cult film and make money in the long term.
I couldn't tell. Was the ending meant ironically? The major flaw in Snyder's direction is that I often had trouble figuing out the tone. Mainly, I felt, because he didn't know, either.
I couldn't tell. Was the ending meant ironically? The major flaw in Snyder's direction is that I often had trouble figuing out the tone. Mainly, I felt, because he didn't know, either.
good observation….plus Ugly Kelly would have been hanging out with Walter Mattheau while puffing butts and looking, well, ugly
Everything makes money in the long term.
Well, maybe not Town & Country…
The picture of Haley is from the movie Cutters, not The Bad News Bears.
This should be a lesson not to make any more comic based movies rated R.
Nah, the lesson is not to make any more R-rated comic book movies that cost more than about $80M.
Whiskey
I went with two 13 year old boys and my girlfriend, I was the only one who read the book. Everyone enjoyed it for what it was. It held everyone for the whole time.
I think the changed ending is much better. I was finding the graphic novel a bit tedious and the space squid …. a real shark jump if you ask me. Really makes it hold together keeping DR. M the common enemy. The alternate power thing, not necessary though.
BTW, nods to Apocalypse Now and Dr. Stragelove were fun. Must be others I missed.
To some degree, The Dark Knight could be described as "an exercise of intellectualism" that "provokes an interesting discussion about heroes."
The Dark Knight was a very thoughtful superhero movie, so I don't think Watchmen's soft numbers are any indication that movie fans aren't interested in a serious epic involving "capes."
I think it's being hurt by a misleading advertising campaign and word of mouth. I cringed Friday morning when I heard some drive time radio show describe the movie, which they admitted having not seen, as being like "The Incredibles" with a washed-up superhero trying to get his buddies to come out of retirement so they could manipulate events and take over the world. If anyone went to the theater expecting to see that, I rather imagine they were unhappy with what they got.
Plus a lot of people don't seem to be able to wrap their minds around the concept that just because it involves superheroes doesn't make "Watchmen" a children's movie. Thursday night a friend asked me if I thought it would be okay if she took her kids to see it because while it was rated R it was still a comic book movie. I told her rather emphatically that I didn't think it would be appropriate for her kids at all. Again these are people who will be very unhappy when they go to the theater and get something other than what they were expecting.
[...] Mason has the figures and analysis. Funny how Watchmen could end up making domestically as much as Blart, which is shaping up to be [...]
Hmmm. Somehow I see the overseas folks being even less enthused about Watchmen than normal Americans. I suspect there is a good chance that most foreigners are going to say "weird American film" rather like we say "weird French film" and to similar effect.
And all those Americans are hard hit economically arguements might apply even stronger overseas.
And Steve Mason, thanks for telling us that we're anti-intellectual for not liking Watchmen. I know you're a fanboy, but really, dude. I like ideas, but not these ideas. Most of Watchmen's ideas were lame, and have only gotten lamer as the decades pass.
I thought you might enjoy this quote about Watchmen (the comic) from an about 8 month-old (I believe now deleted) message board post from comic book writer Chuck Dixon:
I thought you might enjoy this quote about Watchmen (the comic) from an about 8 month-old (I believe now deleted) message board post from comic book writer Chuck Dixon:
Hey, it's all there in the comic and the movie, Ozy's plan will fail, it's just a question of when. Rorshachs journal will be published, but maybe nobody will read it or take it seriously.
I don't think Moore sees Ozy as the hero, his view is totalitarian ( more leans more libertarian ) , Rorshach is more sympathetic but gets killed of but his version might prevail, Dr. M makes it clear Ozy's doesn't and the story ends with just plain folks getting along with each other.
James I think 50+Mill gives it break even on US ticket sales, This might be my first blue ray purchase when it comes out ( so far holding off on HD disks, including computers I have 5 DVD players at home but only one BlueRAy player ) but this one might convince me to buy.
BTW, I left the theater with a smile on my face …. but I saw it IMAX and it was great on IMAX
It's not making money because its not a good movie. Well I shouldn't say that because I actually feel it was a rather good movie, it just had a sub-par plot. I'm also sure that the WAY over the top violence/sex turned a lot of people off. I know that me and the 2 friends I took to the movie would strongly recommend not going to all our friends.
I personally thought the comic was really poorly paced and I couldn't even bring myself to read it thoroughly (I skimmed through a lot of it) but I can see how some people like it. However, to try and pack everything into the movie that was in the comic was a big mistake. You just don't have the time to cover that much material in a movie. Also flashbacks are a terrible storytelling device (in any medium really). They almost always lead to lazy storytelling and almost always violate writing's most basic rule: Show don't tell.
I do have to give mad props to Jackie Earle Haley, Rorschach was the only bright spot in an otherwise dismal movie. Of course I felt the same way about the comic. And honestly his death was the only moment in the movie/comic that actually had any impact.
James — I think we are on the cusp of a shift. We've had a very fractionalized, niche culture since the end of the 1980's, helped along by a proliferation of cable channels, and the internet, and a lot more.
I think that's at an end.
Because I think discretionary spending is going to be cut down, way down, and cult movies, books, comics, and more just won't make money.
Who's going to be buying three different "special edition" versions of the Blu-Ray and DVD copies of this (or any other cult movie)?
I would say, no one, and that's a massive shift for Hollywood. Niche stuff won't get bailed out by lots of consumer money chasing entertainment. It's now, entertainment as a commodity chasing consumer dollars for the limited discretionary spending.
IMHO, the future of films is distribution through the internet, free, and ad-supported, or cheap and convenient through mass market retailers or online. And it's a volume business. Regardless if it's Watchmen or Paul Blart: Mall Cop.
I figure the future belongs to Blart. Old ways of thinking just won't respond to the massive shifts I see underway. [Are not DVD and Blu-Ray sales falling dramatically?]
Personally I hate all this new Depression talk. It could happen. But if you think people are going to change because of one, yes, but only as long as it lasts. After the depression we went back into consumerism more than ever in the 50s and 60s and beyond. People don't change THAT much.
If people like the movie, they will buy it. Yes, there will be more downloaders, most likely. IMO that will be the new DVD, downloading files for even less of a cost.
Watchmen is definitely NOT for kids! I've watched rated R movies that I felt could have squeaked by with a more family friendly rating (especially if they were made before the creation of the PG-13 rating), but Watchmen earns itsrating with plenty of graphic images. But for all of the graphic violence and sexuality (don't mean to sound prudish – I went to see the film after reading comments regarding this material), I felt the ending to be rather wimpy, in that it refused to "take sides" regarding the actions of the villain (if indeed he is meant to be seen as a villain). Haven't read the source material, so I'm only commenting on the movie. I did "get into" the movie though – I thought the opening credits were ingenious, and I felt more empathy for the characters than many folks here seem to. At any rate, Rip, you're right to be incredulous that someone would compare Watchmen to the Incredibles, or allow kids to see the film.
I just saw it and didn't get it.
My friend who read the book was held by the movie – About all I could ascertain is that the female costumed hero had a nice rear end in her costume…
Usually with a movie based on a book you can understand the movie without reading the book. At nearly 3 hours long I heard they cut a lot out to make it that "short".
Hey, just tell them the truth, you need to do research.
I've argued many times with people who've said they don't need religion, they have and can teach their kids good morals without it. Which comes off as saying a painting is as realistic as the actual landscape, no matter the painter. And I've always loved watching Bob Ross work. Who needs source material, as long as it's pretty.
Plus relativism is popular these days, right and wrong are relative standards, All religions are equal/equivalent, they all do the same thing. All cars are likewise the same, they'll get you from point A to point B. Yugo, Porsche, Chrysler minivan, all the same.
This movie is steeped in relativism, with one character with an unflinching moral code and many with more flexible ones. As long as they work for them, right?
The graphic novel was revolutionary, evolutionary, highly influential to many. And the movie, like many movies these days, seeks to be influential, with enough characters that just about everyone can find one of them to identify with, be influenced by, perhaps even copy to some extent.
It's hard to argue it's ever a waste of time and resources to research the enemy.
O.K. The "Enter Watchman" with the Rohrschach face poster on top: don't know what this says about me but looks like my dog when I've just caught him taking a little "potty break" on my carpet…
Bill: "Eek! 3 hours of that. I applaud you for holding in there, but feel sorry you'll never get those 3 hours back. I try to avoid anything that comes out of Hollywood. Try "The Lives of Others" – it's German subtitles but well worth it; plus it gives you some tips to get around being sent to re-education [or ballet classes with Ram] camps….
In a way, a mild flop might be the best outcome for everybody. The fans seem happy with the movie in general, so it shouldn't really matter to them if it's a mainstream hit or not. A flop would also have the added benefit for them of ensuring that there are no attempts at inappropriate sequels and spinoffs. And everybody else could relax, safe in the knowledge that a flood of copycat projects wouldn't do to superhero movies what happened to superhero comics after the book came out…
I thought you might enjoy this quote about Watchmen (the comic) from an about 7 month-old (I believe now deleted) message board post from comic book writer Chuck Dixon:
Taking Kids to see Watchmen Movie – Suggestions for Parents
SPOILERS BELOW
Took my 10 yr old twin boys to see the Watchmen movie on opening weekend. But I previewed it myself beforehand and ran a stopwatch, marking five brief sections where I asked my kids to cover their eyes. Worked out pretty well.
Here are my suggested edits, which you can use if you want to duplicate what I did. Start your clock right after the Warner Bros logo appears on screen. Elapsed time in minutes and hours is shown below:
0:37 – Attempted rape and assault. The victim gets beaten up pretty badly.
1:26 – Kid bites another kids ear off. Pretty graphic, but quick.
1:30 – Murder by meat cleaver to the head. The victim kidnaps children.
1:44 – Prisoner gets his arms cut off with a power tool by another prisoner. Perhaps the most graphic scene of all.
1:47 – Extended sex scene, upper body only. Yes, you see breasts, but it’s not a biggie. This is the only scene that lasts more than about 10 seconds. It goes on for maybe a minute or two.
CONTINUES IN NEXT POST
CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS POST
There are several other scenes that some might mark, which I didn’t. A prisoner gets attacked with a deep fryer, resulting in some serious burns. And a Vietnamese pregnant woman gets gunned down by the man who most likely fathered her baby. Also, at several points folks get their limbs broken, and bones are sticking through the skin. But somehow none of those struck me as worth censoring.
My boys were happy, and they weren’t the youngest ones there. But I don’t know that I’d have taken them if they were much younger, or without making these edits.
Breaking Away was a big surprise hit when it came out. The movie is set in a college town (home of the U of Indiana Where they also quarry limestone) and I was working in a 104 seat theatre in another college town. We had people lined up around the block. People cheered when at the climax. And those where the jaded college students and professors. (In the seventies, you were cool if you took your date to an X rated movie like Deep Throat–the ustual fair of that tiny theatre I worked.)
Kelly plays the group's pee-wee character who nevertheless manages to achieve happiness despite never goint to college in a colleg town. Very touching scene when he and his girlfriend go to the courthouse for the marriage license.
In retrospect it seems kinda hokie but it's a good movie to rent. Some great silliness. It's a lesson on how to make money with film (cost isn't important, story and characters is.) In faxt, I would say Breaking Away is about as opposite as Watchmen as you can get.
The ending is a disappointment. It was written before 911. the Original book ending has a been-there-done-that feel after 911. The film's ending is bs, because we know that's not how things would be. If they were going to update the ending, they could've been more honest with themselves about the aftermath,
Stop being haters. For a long movie — and an R-rated one at that — the movie's performance is great. Think of all the idiots who showed up thinking they'd see a 90-minute POS like Spider-Man 3.
As someone else said, this was considered unfilmable, and Zack proved 'em wrong.
I disagree w/ u & that's one of the best things about this website is that I can & don't have 2 worry about all the mean spirited things that I would have 2 worry about on other sites. If u think this is a movie worth seeing then that's great if u don't believe Jesus is the Son Of God, that also is up 2 u. However having said that I don't think having a moral objection 2 seeing a movie is wrong, I have young children that don't need 2 see a man that is naked or many sex scenes or the other things that this movie has. I didnt let them see The Dark Knight either because again I think they are 2 young 2 understand the theme of the movie & I think that they will just be confused. But again this is all just my opinion & these are the things I am hearing from friends & from websites that are looking out 4 children..they grow up fast enough. If u have kids u know that, if u don't have kids one day u will know what I'm talking about. Things change dramaticallywhen u have lil people u r responsible 4.
Bigger question, why would you take your young kids to an R-rated movie, especially one as dark as Watchmen?
FTA: Hardcore fans of the comic seem satisfied by this relatively faithful adaptation, but a huge swath of the movie-going public doesn’t seem to get it.
FTA2: Watchmen is for grown-ups. It has absolutely earned its R rating, and, honestly, the average kid wouldn’t be able to figure it out anyway.
So, now your telling us we are too stupid to reckonize a good movie ?
Mr. Mason, did the thought of Super Hero Movie Saturation ever come to mind ?
You took 10 year olds to an R-Rated Movie ? You gota be kidding.
snicker. hehe, haaahhaalalabwahaalhaahalahaaaaa…wipes tears from eyes. Yes, you've put a smile on my face, an evil laugh in my throat (followed by a coughing spasm).
Why couldn't we have Chuck Dixon on BH to dissect Watchmen instead of the endless enconiums for a movie BH should dislike?
Actually, they were The Cutters in "Breaking Away." The name "cutters" came from the men who cut and carried away the rocks that produced the quarry where the young people from "the wrong side of town" went to swim. Essentially, they were the locals who were pitted against the rich kids at the university. It also starred Dennis Quaid in one of his earliest roles. Dennis Christopher had the lead role as the kid who wanted to leave his middle-class family by getting involved in Euro style bicycling while pretending to be an Italian racer. His renderings of Italian opera were hilarious.
"Bigger question, why would you take your young kids to an R-rated movie, especially one as dark as Watchmen?"
Perhaps because they ARE his young kids and he likely knows better than you what is and is not appropriate for them? The fellow sounds like an involved, dedicated and reasonable parent – the consistency of which must be A LOT of work in regards to having TWO boys that age.
I'd be curious as to whether or not the kids in question enjoyed it since – absent his time-marked shock scenes – the remaining film is basically four or five brief, smallish-scale fight scenes intersped throughout a VERY weighty debate on ethics and metaphysics with an ending that all but turns around to the audience and asks "okay, what do YOU think?" If they were engaged by it, I'd say the fellow's dedication and involvement is doing well by them.
Hell, I'd pay the admission price just to see a pedophile killed with an axe. My only regret is the didn't use a real pedophile… and a real axe.
There's a DVD collection I'd buy.
Here's a tip: if you have to go to a movie with a stopwatch and a pad and pen, maybe you shouldn't take your kids to it. Or maybe you both need to grow up.
Here's a tip: if you have to go to a movie with a stopwatch and a pad and pen, maybe you shouldn't take your kids to it. Or maybe you and your kids need to grow up.
Shocking, I know. But I made an informed and carefully considered choice, and we all enjoyed it. My kids see a whole lot more of the world than many, and I think they're better off for it. And just what does watching High School Musical 3, or most other kid-friendly garbage out there, do to their young minds.
Different strokes, man. Although I've got to say I'm tempted to step up when I see parents do other stuff, such as let their kids skateboard without helmets, for example.
Sadly, this was a crappy movie. It was long and boring. Hard to imagine saying that about a movie soaked in gore and gratuitous sex. The end really sucked. Ozzie kills Manhattan's friends not to mention millions of people, and all Manhattan can do is sigh and agree it's necessary? Where's the man's soul? The movie made a point of saying he still had one, however stunted. Even if you could agree with the insane nonsense that frying millions was necessary to obtain world peace, what person with a mind wouldn't exact revenge for the utterly unnecessary murders of his close friends?
Well, Incredibles is like Watchmen since it also focuses on superheroes forced into hiding due to a dubious law. The stories go into radically different directions after that.
Chuck Dixon would be a good fit for this site, since he's a conservative who's been a success in mainstream comics.
Breitbart and JN: If either of you are reading this, you could do worse than to try to get him on board.
Heh, you sort of missed the point.
I believe in God and Jesus, so much so I question the language, as I likewise "believe" in oxygen and gravity.
It seemed to me that you wanted a reason for you yourself to go see the movie, so I provided one. If you have kids to raise, that's added incentive. This is the culture that's raising our kids, when we, at least to our kid's standards, aren't providing enough guidance in a manner they'll accept. I am still amazed by parents who profess shock and indignation when the media (when it does) reports on offensive music lyrics or violent video games, TV shows, movies, whatever. If parents show due diligence, they'd have known about them before their kids were exposed, at least made an honest attempt. How do they know what not to let the kids have access to if they don't even know exactly what's out there?
If you yourself have moral objections about seeing it, that's fine. But read the reviews, heck read the Wikipedia article, know what's in it. It seems dead certain the kids are hearing about it from their friends and elsewhere, and soon it'll be out on DVD. If you can't convince them to stay away from it period, when they're out of your sight and think you'll never know they saw it, make sure you know what they saw. Do the research.
Frances_Genau – Lives of Others was an excellent movie – have the DvD. I can't say I'd even recommend Watchmen to anyone having suffered through it but, as I mentioned, my friend, who read the graphic novel, liked it. I think that is the "key to admission" and at least enjoying the movie
Looks like a butterfly to me
Sure, technically "The Incredibles" is like "Watchmen". In fact you could take things further by saying that "The Incredibles" was at least partially inspired by "Watchmen", what with superheroes being outlawed and Edna's rant about the evils of superheroes wearing capes. But that creates a false impression.
It's like those trailers on YouTube where people take scenes from movies and put them together so that "The Shining" appears to be a romantic comedy and "Mary Poppins" becomes a horror movie. Technically they are representative of their respective movies since that's where their scenes come from but they give a substantially different impression of what the movie is actually about.
If I wasn't familiar with the comic books, telling me that "Watchmen" is like "The Incredibles" would cause me to expect a light heart superhero comedy. Given the sort of comedies that get R-ratings this would lead me to expect the superhero version of "American Pie" or "Wedding Crashers" with topless women, lots of sex jokes, profanity, and maybe some scatological humor. I would not be expecting Mr. Incredible to be a raving psychopath who takes meat cleavers to people's heads or to see Frozone try to rape Elastigirl.
The fact that I had people asking me if I thought it would be okay for them to take their pre-teen kids to this movie tells me that it's marketing did a very poor job of telling people what to expect from the movie.
lol EXACTLY. I saw Watchmen this weekend and IMO it was drivel. Well made, fairly well acted…drivel. The only redeeming character to me was Rorshach. The sort of character who makes me want to say…I am Rorshach. I suppose if you wanted to view it as a sort of high tech homage to the ridiculousness of Liberalism…it succeeds.
The ending, just for kicks and giggles, suppose it occurred in a parallel universe where the One is our dear leader, would have us singing Kum Bah Yah. Alternately singing My Sharia (to the tune of My Sharona), to be fair, with Iran and the rest of the "religion of peacers", well, at least until we received the final copy of the Limbaugh Letter detailing how the One deceived us into an inauthentic peace.
I luv JOE JONAS he is sooooo fit! Miley Rocks! I like her song
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