From Wikipedia
Reception

edit Box office

Watchmen was released at midnight on March 6, 2009, and earned an estimated $4.6 million for the early showing,126 which is approximately twice as much as 300, Snyder's previous comic book adaptation.127 The film earned $24,515,772 in 3,611 theaters its first day, followed by $18,383,964 and $12,314,598 for Saturday and Sunday, bringing its opening weekend to $55,214,334.128 Watchmen's opening weekend is the highest of any Alan Moore adaptation to date, surpassing V for Vendetta at $25,642,340, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen at $23,075,892, and From Hell at $11,014,818; its opening is also greater than the entire box office take of From Hell, which ended its theatrical run with $31,602,566.129 Although the film only finished with $55 million for its opening, while Snyder's previous adaptation 300 earned $70 million in its opening weekend, Warner Bros.' head of distribution, Dan Fellman, believes that the opening weekend success of the two films cannot be compared due to the extended running time of Watchmen—the film comes in at 2 hours and 45 minutes, while 300 is just under 2 hours—provides the 2009 film with fewer showings a night than 300.130 Although Watchmen receives fewer showings a night in each theater, it was released in 508 more theaters than 300 received (3,103).129 Next to the general theaters, Watchmen pulled in $5.4 million at 124 IMAX screens, which is the third largest opening behind Star Trek and The Dark Knight.131

Following its first week at the box office, Watchmen saw a significant drop in attendance when comparing its opening Friday to its second Friday in release. On the first Friday after its opening weekend the film took in an estimated $5,425,000, which is a 77.9% decrease from its opening day.128 By the end of its second weekend, the film brought in $17,817,301, a 67.7% overall decrease from the previous weekend.132 Other than Hellboy II, Wolverine and Hulk, no other major comic book movie has had such a steep second-weekend drop-off.133 Losing two-thirds of its audience from its opening weekend, the film finished second for the weekend of March 13-15, 2009.134 The film continued to drop about 60% in almost every subsequent weekend: in its third weekend, it fell to fifth place with $6,801,114; in its fourth weekend, eighth place with $2,732,439; and in its fifth weekend, thirteenth place with only $1,074,320. By its seventh weekend, the movie fell out of the top twenty, finishing in 25th place with only $199,114. 135 Watchmen crossed the $100 million mark on March 26, its twenty-first day at the box office. 136

Thanks to its opening weekend, Watchmen currently sits fourth in all time openings for the month of March,137 as well as the fifth highest grossing weekend for the spring season, which is defined by the first Friday in March through to the first Thursday in the month of May.138 It is the sixth largest opening for an R-rated film in North American history,139 and is currently the highest grossing R-rated film of 2009.140 On the North American box office, Watchmen currently sits as the thirteenth highest grossing film based on a DC Comics comic book,141 and the seventh highest-grossing film of 2009.142

Next to its domestic opening, Watchmen earned $26.6 million in 45 territories overseas; of these, Britain and France had the highest box office with an estimated $4.6 million and $2.5 million, respectively.143 Watchmen also took in approximately $2.3 million in Russia, $2.3 million in Australia, $1.6 million in Italy, and $1.4 million in Korea.144 As of April 28, 2009, the film has collected $74,207,581 in foreign box office, bringing its worldwide total to $181,268,934.3

edit Reviews

The film has received mixed reviews. Based on 255 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, Watchmen currently has a 64% approval rating from critics, with an average score of 6.2/10.145 Among Rotten Tomatoes' Top Critics, which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and radio programs,146 the film holds an overall approval rating of 43%.147 By comparison, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 56, based on 39 reviews.148 CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade cinemagoers gave the film was B on an A+ to F scale, and that the primary audience was older men.149

Patrick Kolan of IGN Australia gave the film an enormous amount of praise, awarding it a perfect 10/10 and saying "It's the Watchmen film you always wanted to see, but never expected to get".150 Also praising the film along with another perfect score (4/4) was Kyle Smith of the New York Post, comparing it to some of Stanley Kubrick's films. "Director Zack Snyder's cerebral, scintillating follow-up to 300 seems, to even a weary filmgoer's eye, as fresh and magnificent in sound and vision as 2001".151 Roger Ebert gave it four out of four stars. "It’s a compelling visceral film — sound, images and characters combined into a decidedly odd visual experience that evokes the feel of a graphic novel."152 Richard Corliss of TIME concluded "this ambitious picture is a thing of bits and pieces", yet "the bits are glorious, the pieces magnificent."153 Total Film awarded it 4/5 stars, stating: "It's hard to imagine anyone watching the Watchmen as faithfully as Zack Snyder's heartfelt, stylised adap. Uncompromising, uncommercial, and unique."154 When comparing the film to the original source material, Ian Nathan of Empire felt that while "it isn't the graphic novel... Zack Snyder clearly gives a toss, creating a smart, stylish, decent adaptation".155 Nick Dent of Time Out Sydney gave the film 4/6 in his review of February 25, praising the film's inventiveness but concluding, "While Watchmen is still as rich, daring, and intelligent an action film as there's ever been, it also proves Moore absolutely right Watchmen is inherently unfilmable. As a comic book, Watchmen is an extraordinary thing. As a movie, it's just another movie, awash with sound and fury."156

The negative reviews generally cite the film's much-advertised reverence to the source material, as statically replicating – rather than creatively interpreting – Alan Moore's graphic novel. "Watchmen is a bore...It sinks under the weight of its reverence for the original," writes Philip Kennicott of the Washington Post.157 Devin Gordon wrote for Newsweek, "That's the trouble with loyalty. Too little, and you alienate your core fans. Too much, and you lose everyone – and everything – else."158 Owen Gleiberman's Entertainment Weekly review reads, "Snyder treats each image with the same stuffy hermetic reverence. He doesn't move the camera or let the scenes breathe. He crams the film with bits and pieces, trapping his actors like bugs wriggling in the frame."159 "Snyder never pauses to develop a vision of his own. The result is oddly hollow and disjointed; the actors moving stiffly from one overdetermined tableau to another," says Noah Berlatsky of the Chicago Reader.160 David Edelstein of New York Magazine agrees: "They’ve made the most reverent adaptation of a graphic novel ever. But this kind of reverence kills what it seeks to preserve. The movie is embalmed."161 A reviewer in The Wall Street Journal wrote, "Watching 'Watchmen' is the spiritual equivalent of being whacked on the skull for 163 minutes. The reverence is inert, the violence noxious, the mythology murky, the tone grandiose, the texture glutinous."162 Donald Clarke of The Irish Times was similarly dismissive: "Snyder, director of the unsubtle 300, has squinted hard at the source material and turned it into a colossal animated storyboard, augmented by indifferent performances and moronically obvious music cues."163 The trade magazines Variety and The Hollywood Reporter were even less taken with the film. Variety's Justin Chang commented that, "The movie is ultimately undone by its own reverence; there's simply no room for these characters and stories to breathe of their own accord, and even the most fastidiously replicated scenes can feel glib and truncated,"164 and Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter writing, "The real disappointment is that the film does not transport an audience to another world, as 300 did. Nor does the third-rate Chandler-esque narration by Rorschach help...Looks like we have the first real flop of 2009."165

Analyzing the divided response, Geoff Boucher of the Los Angeles Times felt that, like Eyes Wide Shut, The Passion of the Christ or Fight Club, Watchmen would continue to be a talking point among those who liked or disliked the film. Boucher felt in spite of his own mixed feelings about the finished film, he was "oddly proud" that the director had made a faithful adaptation that was "nothing less than the boldest popcorn movie ever made. Snyder somehow managed to get a major studio to make a movie with no stars, no 'name' superheroes and a hard R-rating, thanks to all those broken bones, that oddly off-putting Owl Ship sex scene and, of course, the unforgettable glowing blue penis."166