"Watchmen" made $55.6 million. Not as much as "300." "300" made $70.9 million its opening weekend. How are the two movies different? Did the 'superhero' marketing turn off some movie goers? Did the constant bombardment in the news and media over Watchmen make some cringe at the thought of seeing the movie? Did people not want to sit in a theater for close to three hours? Did the reviews stating you had to read the book first make people change their minds?
Apparently this makes it the 12th highest opening weekend for a comic book movie. It's also the 6th highest grossing opening for an R-rated movie. The movie cost $120 million to make (and then there's all the court fees and the small percentage Fox gets). Is that good enough?
The real question is how will it do it's second weekend? Will it continue to sell tickets or are the sales going to drop like Dr. Manhattan's pants?