Watchmen Dominates Weekend Box Office, but Doubts Linger

Even in a deep recession, some movies can still create waves at the box office, and Watchmen is certainly one of those. The Warner Bros. release took home over $55 Million at the weekend box office, accounting for over half of all tickets sold during the weekend. But industry insiders are looking at the R-rated film and wondering if it is going to have the staying power to justify its massive $120 to 150 million budget, depending on where you get your information.

The trend for the first weekend was a sharp decline, which insiders say doesn't bode well for the film. Friday's take was more than double Sunday's take, which can mean that word-of-mouth feedback on the film was weaker than expected. The film also runs very long at well over 2 hours and is limited to some audiences because it is an R-rated film. Also likely hurting the concept is that it is a film about super heroes that no one knows.

With films like The Dark Knight and the Spiderman trilogy targeting household-name superheroes, it's going to be hard for a film like Watchmen to attract the mainstream consumer audience. Where Watchmen will excel is with the harder-core comic fans and role-playing gamers who can drive the film's success far beyond the big screen. The issue there is that it will take some time for the franchise to find its legs in areas such as DVD sales and game-based renditions.