Sometimes I Wish I Wasn't Always Right

 

I really hate to say this, but I totally called it.

 

Immediately after seeing the Watchmen for the first time, I knew it was going to bomb.  Well, not bomb per se, but I knew it wasn't going to be a smashing success. 

 

I clearly remember turning to my friends and after about five minutes or so of us ranting about how much we all loved the film and how amazing it was, I finally noted to them my first fear.  I said that it was too perfect.  Too much like the comic book.  So much so that general mainstream audiences (or Muggles as Matt calls them) either won't like the film or won't get it. 

 

I even predicted at that moment (I first saw the film on February 18th, mind you) that the film would have a big opening box office weekend, but that the film's ticket sales would drop sharply in the second weekend.  I predicted a drop of at least 40% in ticket sales, with the drop even possibly going as high as 50% or more.

 

I'm really sad to say this, but I was right.  And what's even worse is that my estimates were conservative.

 

The Watchmen saw a ticket sales drop of 67% over the weekend.  It only took in $18.1 million, which brings the film's total gross as of this moment to about $86 million.  Let's also remember now that the Watchmen cost about $150 to make, and that's not counting the massive amount of money spent on marketing, nor the percent of the gross that Warner Brothers has to pay to Fox due to the lawsuit over copyright ownership.

 

I think it can fairly safely be said now that most hollywood business types are going to consider the Watchmen to be a failure, a flop, a bad investment.  Will the film eventually make a profit?  Of course it will.  Through merchandising sales and international ticket sales as well as the multiple versions of the DVD that will be coming out throughout the year I have no doubts in my mind that the film will eventually be financially successful.  What the film will never be considered though is a blockbuster success.  For the most part, it's going to be considered a flop.  It had an underwhelming opening weekend followed by a loss of almost three quarters of its audience in its second weekend.  That pretty much spells death as far as movie companies are concerned.

 

So what happened?  Where did it go wrong?  Personally, I'm of the belief that it didn't go wrong.  I think the film did all it could ever hope to accomplish.  As much beloved as the Watchmen comics were to fans, they've never been the highest selling or the most popular series of all time.  And as far as a mainstream audience goes, names like the Nite Owl and Silk Spectre are complete unknowns when compared to Batman or Spider-man.

 

Even amongst comic fans, until recently the Watchmen have always been a niche market.  In the last year alone I personally know a goodly sized group of comic book fans that only now got around to actually reading the Watchmen comics.  Are they the most critically acclaimed comics of all time?   Yes, but that doesn't necessarily translate to the most financially successful comics of all time.  People have a tendency to refer to the Watchmen as the Moby Dick of comic books.  I'm not sure if I personally agree with that statement, but even if it's true to most people, let's look at what we're comparing it too here.  How much money has the most successful film adaptation of Moby Dick ever brought in?  I don't see that sitting on the top 10 highest grossing films of all time. 

 

My point is that critically acclaimed and financially successful don't always meet.  One does not necessarily mean the other.  I honestly believe that there was no way a faithful adaptation of the Watchmen could have been made that would have been a huge box office giant.  The story is much heavier than your average comic book plot.  It's all very heavy, very adult material.  General audiences want to see pretty explosions and chase scenes and minimal plot.  To make a successful Watchmen movie would have required the story to be completely gutted in exchange for a shiny, high action romp that would have been Watchmen in name only.

 

Personally, I'm very glad that Zack Snyder went the faithful route.  Even for those fans that don't like the adaptation, I don't think anyone can argue that Zack Snyder didn't at least try his damnedest to try to make his movie as faithful as possible to the original comics.  I'm even ok with the film being considered a bit of a failure too.  I would much rather have a faithful adaptation that is a failure than a bastardization of the comics that is a huge success. 

 

I'm ok with loving a film that general audiences don't understand or like.  I've been liking things that a lot of others haven't liked my whole life.  That's what has always made me a geek.  This is just one more instance of that.  Oh well, I see it as the muggles loss really.  They're missing out on something amazing.  But then again, if they were to ever open their eyes and enjoy something that actually required them to think, and that didn't have fight scenes every 30 seconds or so, they wouldn't be muggles then, would they?