Clock Tower

Watchmen won the weekend--but it looks to me as though its 2:43 running time did affect the gross as I predicted on Friday...



Pamela McClintock of Variety:

Warner Bros.' edgy superhero pic "Watchmen" grossed an estimated $55.7 million from 3,611 theaters in its domestic B.O. debut, coming in lower than expected but still scoring the best opening of the year and one of the best showings ever for an R-rated film.

"Watchmen" placed No. 1 in North America as well as tops overseas, where it was the first major day-and-date release of 2009.

Warners had hoped "Watchmen" would match, or even best, the $70.9 million domestic opening of Zack Snyder's previous film, "300," which bowed on the same weekend in 2007. Overseas the "Watchmen" debut also failed to match the "300" opening numbers.

"Watchmen" nabbed the third highest March opening of all time after "300" and "Ice Age: The Meltdown" ($68 million). Debut is also the fifth best for an R-rated film.

Overall, the domestic B.O. continued to hum. Weekend was up 11% over the same sesh last year on the strength of "Watchmen" and holdovers.

In only its third frame, Lionsgate's "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail" became Perry's top-grossing film. Coming in No. 2, the comedy grossed an estimated $8.8 million from 2,151 runs for a cume of $76.5 million. Pic was the previous record-holder for best 2009 opening at $41 million.

After that, an unusually healthy crop of older holdovers (Fox's "Taken," Sony's "Paul Blart: Mall Cop") beat out more recent releases.

For example, Disney's "Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience" fell off a steep 78% in its second frame to place No. 9. Pic grossed an estimated $2.8 million from 1,276 runs for a cume of $16.8 million. ...

Dave McNary reports 'Watchmen' tops at foreign box office with an additional 27.5 million overseas...

Joshua Rich of EW:

The superhero saga drew big crowds to the box office, but wound up on the low end of expectations...

Meantime outside the numbers Ken Tucker also of EW notes audience reaction to themes in Zack Snyder's film, and thinks it's bound to set pundits off...

I wonder if co-creator Alan Moore liked the movie? Probably not...Look for my review sometime soon...