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Watchmen 50 Days On, Was It Worth the Gamble?
brumgrunt writes "Friday marks the 50th day on general release for what was the long-awaited Watchmen movie. But how much money has it made, and how has it measured up to Warner Bros' expectations? Has it, bluntly, been worth the gamble, expense and hassle? "
When Watchmen shot out of the blocks to an opening weekend of $55m in the US back at the start of March, there were some mutterings of discontent that this wasn't quite the kind of number that Warner Bros was looking for.
Well, to be fair, stateside that puts it at #6 for opening weekend for a Rated R movie. And 64th overall. Worldwide so far it's sitting at $180+ million and, like the article said, DVD and Blu-Ray sales often make a big difference.
... so what is the problem exactly? You've made the #6 most popular R rated movie by opening weekend in the United States. Job well done. I assure you that DVD and Blu-Ray sales will net you a lot of money. Especially with that Curse of the Black Freighter stuff you withheld from the movie.
I've heard that the estimated budget was $100 million. So they've made $80 million over that
It was always going to be a harder sell than a Batman or Spider-man movie ...
For the love of all things binary, I thought it was common knowledge that you cannot compare rated R movies to PG-13 movies. Every single Batman & Spider-man movie has been rated below R.
The movie did well and I'm sure it was worth it.
My work here is dung.
>I've heard that the estimated budget was $100 million. So they've made $80 million over that ...
>so what is the problem exactly?
The usual rule of thumb is that a film needs to make 2.5-3 times it's budget before it's profitable - that allows for everyone in the chain, cinemas etc to get their cut. As such, Watchman needs to make around $300m before it makes the studio happy.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
You're ignoring the opportunity cost. Sure, it'll end up returning 3 times the amount it cost to make, which is a decent profit, but could the studio have spent that money making another (or two, or three other) films that would have done better? If so then Watchmen was the wrong choice. In this case would they have been better off making a couple of PG-13 films?
http://twitter.com/onion2k
Fuck the studios' happiness. These are the same people who claimed to the author of FORREST GUMP that there were no net profits to share with him. You remember that bomb, doncha? Only made $330M domestic in theatres. How anybody at that studio could afford to feed a family after that disaster is beyond me. And by "family" I mean "cocaine habit."
"I guess the moral of the story is, don't paint your airship with rocket fuel." -- Addison Bain
I for one can't wait till they release the Watchmen Babies edition... V for Vacation sounds awesome
You think that's bad? Lucasarts is still telling David Prowse (the guy who wore the Vader suit) that Return of the Jedi still hasn't turned a profit.
I find it funny how much a penis really bothers people.
Example: daughter wants to see Twilight. OK. Fine, we all make compromises for the people we love.
Tickets: $11 adult $8 kid. So: $30 tickets.
child, wife and self insist on popcorn, drinks, etc. I've memorised the price: $24.15
So, one afternoon movie experience: $54.15.
Also: transportation: 2 adults one child on subway. $2.75 per adult, 75cent child, each way. Total: $12.50. Add that on.
$66.65 to go see a movie.
x12 months = $799.80
I can wander down the street to that shithole of a Best Buy and get a 32" LCD HDTV for $469.
That would leave plenty of money to rent videos.
And I wouldn't have to deal with the mouth breathing retard behind me yapping through the whole fucking movie.
And when you glare at him and tell him to shut the fuck up, he feels ENTITLED to continue flapping his insolent stupidities.
I hate going to the movies. The movies are fine, and fun. The audiences make me ill.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
There is a reason for this, the expectation of watching in a Movie Theater is different from watch at home on DVD
For Movie Theaters there is an expected time span, expected content (enough "backstory" so people who just decided on a whim to see it will understand what's going on, but not all the small nuances that true fans enjoy), and rated low enough to grab the widest audience.
For DVDs there is an expectation for in-depth information (commentaries, blooper reels, featuretts, etc.), more freedom given to time span (put it on pause for a bathroom break, or sit down tomorrow night and select the chapter you left off at), and a bigger market for rated R or 'unrated' material (Unrated editions of just about every movie ever made, and they're selling them at Wallmart!)
So, while it is an 'incomplete' movie as far as comparing it to the directors cut, it is complete as far as Movie Theater expectations.
DEMETRIUS: Villain, what hast thou done?
AARON: Villain, I have done thy mother.
Shakespeare invents 'your mom'
Oh they profit from the investment, it's only on paper that they don't profit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting
Basically if you give all the money to other companies that arent your company but really are because you are both owned by the same people, you've on paper lost a ton of money (they call it gross), but that's only on paper.
Whats funny to me is that after screwing over the author of Forest Gump, the studios approached him for rights to the sequel. As the wiki page mentions, he told them he "he cannot in good conscience allow money to be wasted on a failure." So, good job guys, you've ensured you're never going to make money from the second movie.
I swear if people across this country put half the thought into their buisness that they do into how to cheat their way into more money, we'd have no economic troubles and would nationally be 10 trillion in black rather than in red. And we'd have much better movies.
That would be LucasFILM... not LucasARTS. Lucasarts makes video games and were one of the best studios around until they started churning 100% Star Wars crap....
Lucasfilm once had some of the best films under its belt until it started churning out Star Wars "prequel" crap..
Hmmm... I see a pattern emerging.....