As expected, Watchmen took a nosedive in its second weekend – taking in an estimated $18 million, 67% than last week. After ten days, it has made $85 million against a budget of $130-150 million, which means that it isn’t going to make back its production budget in theaters. Considering all the money that went into marketing and its so-so worldwide grosses thus far – and the profit-sharing deal Warner Brothers was forced to work out with 20th Century Fox – Watchmen is not going to be a box office success.
2009 has been a strong year at the box office thus far, with lots of films that weren’t expected to do much raking in major dough (Paul Blart, Taken and the expansion of Slumdog Millionaire to name a few). This weekend sort of brought things done to earth, as the first big blockbuster of the year crashed and burned in its second weekend and the potential Disney franchise-starter Race to Witch Mountain, starring The Rock, only took in $25 million. While this isn’t a horrible amount, Disney, who has been struggling throughout the year, had to have been expecting more. It might have strong legs, but the upcoming Monsters vs. Aliens will demolish it in a couple weeks.
Miss March failed to perform with a tenth place finish.
March 15th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
It’s kind of sad Watchmen is doing so bad. Considering so much time and effort was put into it. However, maybe other companies will realize that quite a few graphic novels like Watchmen should never be a film in the first place.
March 15th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Yes, I was hoping it was going to do much better than this, though I’m not surprised. At least we won’t get into that issue where Warner Brothers will be tempted to do an unwanted sequel.