Watchmen: Box Office Potential?

[StorminNorman]

What type of Box Office Potential do you think a Superhero movie about Superhero's no one knows about has at the box office? Will it be able to be taken seriously?

 

[Arkady Rossovich]

I would think so,its basically a exeplenation of Golden Age superheros..and i can imagine that would go well.

 

[ThatDamnNinja]

If it's good, I think it will have good box office reception. Not over $200 million... but I think it will break $100 million.

 

[cookiva]

If advertised right, more than V obviously. Every one of my friends who isnt a comic fan, ive forced to read it. Every one of them loves it. It could be big, but im not expecting huge.

 

[sad lieutenant]

According to the interview with Wizard, Snyder is banking on the insane imagery selling the film -- a lesson he learned from the success of 300. His attitude toward marketing is unique and fearless:

With “Watchmen,” from a marketing standpoint and as a filmmaker—the movie and the marketing are the same thing to me—I think, “Okay, what shots are going to be in the trailer? What images can tell people to come to see the movie?” If you don’t look at your movie that way, you’re naïve to the process.

This attitude that "the movie and the marketing are the same to me" might shed some light on how it is that Snyder is the one director who was able to sell this project to the studio -- while maintaining the integrity of the source material and his vision. Could you imagine Gilliam saying this sort of sh-t in the 80s? Snyder elaborates on his faith in the power of gonzo imagery from a marketing perspective:

Those images are going to be like, “What the f---?” Or you have Rorschach being taken down by the SWAT cops—that’s a cool sequence. There are a hundred of those types of things, but…not only are they superhero images, but they’re also images that challenge you in the same way the movie will. In a marketing way, it’s something that challenges you in terms of everything that you think a superhero is, but in a cool way it’s still spectacle and moving. When you see the trailer for “Watchmen” you go, “Holy sh--! That’s insane. I have to see that.” That to me is something I believe “Watchmen” has, that potential.

It was the same way with 300, in so far it did not bring in $70 million worth of fans of the graphic novel on the opening weekend. The property was entirely hitherto unknown to most people who saw the film. And the imagery in the Watchmen, I think, will even be even more WTF-inspiring. Plus, I imagine every bit of marketing will be incessantly tagged with "From the Motherfawker that brought you 300" to bring that crowd on board (and by "that" crowd I mean people who saw 300 but don't necessarily geek-out on message boards 18 months in advance of the release of the film) from the get-go -- and then they'll be bombarded with off-the-hook ultra-violence in a dark, bizarro universe where "God exists and he is American". If it's marketed just as intensely as 300 was, it'll do just as well -- and, I suspect, even better given the superiority of the source material.

There's so many ways this movie can be sold... If it's released in the fall of 2008 during the thick of the presidential election, then market it as a political movie commenting on imperial hubris... Conservatives will rally against it, creating free publicity.. and you'll have the NPR crowd lining up around the block...

 

[hippie_hunter]

I think it can make V for Vendetta or 300 numbers.

 

[Harlekin]

Depends on the trailer, really.

 

[blind_fury]

Because of the way Snyder described his ideas for the trailer I think it could make FF numbers worldwide.

The guy knows how to get the masses interested in obscure comic books. Awe-inspiring trailers that engage the general publics imagination.

The movie will be sold as a controversial superhero action-epic with trippy effects. It won't get close to half a billion like "300" did but is should break 290 million worldwide and be a major success on dvd.

 

[ThatDamnNinja]

I don't think it'll make 300 type numbers... 300 is an action movie. Watchmen is not. The general public has a taste for action movies, and there was something about a super-stylized historical war flick that really appealed to audiences. It just seemed so badass.

Watchmen might go over people's heads... I'm not saying it won't make money. If it's good, it'll make a lot more money than is typical for a work on that intellectual level, but I don't think it'll have the mass appeal of 300.

 

[sad lieutenant]

Actually Latino Review panned the Alex Tse script for being way too "action-y". And it's Zack Snyder, for fawk's sake. Certainly it won't be Bay-tastic in the sense of Bay's movie-as-a-littany-of-car-chases aesthetic, but Snyder has asserted repeated that it will be "hard" (with respect to graphic violence) and an audacious, if gritty, spectacle. I mean, as a comic, Watchmen is simultaneously intellectually subversive and visually arresting... It's just my feeling that it has a wider potential appeal than 300 ever did.

It will be marketed it as the "cool", subversive superhero movie that is way overdue; as an anti-establishment/anti-imperialist/anti-conservative, smart political film during an election year in which Watchmen will have an almost spooky resonance (I mean 300 was politically controversial... imagine what people will say about Watchmen); and finally, as the successor to 300 in terms of gritty, visual audacity.

I really don't think it's an understatement that if the studio puts any significant effort into marketing the film at all, the film will be required-viewing for every young adult in the US and western Europe.

 

[Roughneck]

Watchmen the Movie will do for Movies what Watchmen the comic did for comics.

 

[ThatDamnNinja]

Watchmen the Movie will do for Movies what Watchmen the comic did for comics.

To do that it would have to be recognized instantly as the greatest movie ever released. I'm not counting on it.

I'm going to go out on a limb (but not as much of a limb as you just did) and say that a year and a half from now, people will be talking about Watchmen as a serious Best Picture contender.

 

[ConcreteBlock15]

In much the same way as the original comics maxi-series did back in the day of 1986/87 when it blew fans' minds with it's radical approach and deconstruction of the superhero COMIC mythos, so I think that WATCHMEN: The Motion Picture should certainly aim to deconstruct the superhero MOVIE genre and mess with the audiences preconceptions of what they've come to expect from exposure to previous 'Men In Tights' pictures (as Snyder himself is keen on mentioning... Fantastic Four this ain't.)

 

[Roughneck]

To do that it would have to be recognized instantly as the greatest movie ever released. I'm not counting on it.

I'm going to go out on a limb (but not as much of a limb as you just did) and say that a year and a half from now, people will be talking about Watchmen as a serious Best Picture contender.

Okay.....Let me rephrase


It will do for comic book movies what the original Watchmen did for Comic Books.

 

[miltonh]

probably over 100 milion, I think 140-150 but if trailers will be so cool like for 300 it could be more but probably not over 200 becuase it will be long and Watchmen is not Spider-Man, LotR or Pirates...

 

[Rizor]

I think it could do decently well. At the moment, I'm thinking Daredevil-like numbers which would put it at about $100 mill. The problem is that the material doesn't really have the broad appeal that other superheroes have. So it depends really on the marketing, the hype, and what the audience wants.

 

[Iglius]

I can see it making monumental DVD sales, because I'm sure there will be a LOT of extra features, what with this talk of putting the Black Freighter sequences on the DVD and everything else.

 

[Zombie_samurai]

yes

 

[cryptic name]

i think the potential is there for Watchmen to be tremendous hit. like everyone has said, the marketing will be the most important part of it. also, the time of it's release could make or break it. this is probably the one "comic book film" that could generate serious Oscar buzz, and that could get a lot of interest from movie goers who normally wouldn't be taken in to see your everyday superhero flick.

 

[Cinemaman]

Zack Snyder is not just a very good filmmaker, but also he is the one, who cares about his movies in financial meaning. So far he has not made any flop and this is what proves that Watchmen won't be bomb, unless it has anything more than $100m budget.

My thoughts? As I have no doubt Watchmen will get very smart marketing strategy being similar to 300's, I don't worry about box office numbers so much.

 

[tzarinna]

Yeah, I'm going to have to agree on both the marketing and the trailer to getting the attention of the masses. But, also that MySpace, as much as I'm not a fan, it does help a lot in this day and age.

 

[Shifty]

i think the potential is there for Watchmen to be tremendous hit. like everyone has said, the marketing will be the most important part of it. also, the time of it's release could make or break it. this is probably the one "comic book film" that could generate serious Oscar buzz, and that could get a lot of interest from movie goers who normally wouldn't be taken in to see your everyday superhero flick.

Teaser trailer with WB's 10,000 BC in March 2008
Full trailer with WB's The Dark Knight in July 2008
Comic-Con Presentation in July 2008
New full trailer with WB's Harry Potter 6 in November 2008
Full release in Decemer 2008

WB doesn't have a December release set right now, I think two weeks are still free with no studios putting anything there, all the end of year awards happen, right now if things go well that seems to be the target month. If the movie gets pushed back you're looking at March 2009 or somewhere in the summer.

 

[dr.strange]

if everyone whoever read the book,is a fan of moore,or just likes comicbook movies,80 million isnt impossible.but whats the budget on this film? is it superman returns? spiderman 3? oh..and word of mouth and a positive review can't hurt.

 

[odiin]

Honestly? I seriously feel like Watchmen is just an elaborate "thank-you" present from WB to Zack Snyder for making them so much money on 300,

 

[Adrian Veidt]

Good Lord. The add campaign will feast on the countless money shots. Zack's name alone is worth around 50 million, and if this movie is skillfully presented as a stylish, action-laced blockbuster meddling in genre archetypes, this will kill any March record in the books and play far into April. 200 might be possible.