'Watchmen' March ' 09 release in jeopardy?

Watched the first disc of the Motion Comic. It is great. As becs said "Isn't it just an audio book with badly animated comic cells?" and I answer 'Yes but a PB and J is just peanut butter and jelly on bread. But man, is it fucking tasty..."
They are not really cutting much out of it. A few speech bubbles here and there and only frames that have their speech cut entirely are gone. 3 hours of Watchmen goodness last night and I am on disc 2 tonight. All prep for Friday.

Courtesy of Swedgin!

This is just so, SOOOOO wrong...

That was just plain wrong on so many levels.

What the fuck was that? And what is up with Dr. Manhattan?

I found it absolutely hilarious.

I really don't know what to say to that. Is this actually a cartoon or just a piss take?

It's a parody, Surfer.

bahahahaha!!!

Admittedly, I just can't stop watching this. Perhaps the greatest film parody EVER. Rorschach noodling his noggin and exclaiming, rather self-evidently, "I'mmm NUTTY!" may be the single greatest slice of bizarro awesomeness I've seen yet this year. (Oddly enough, the cartoon version of Rory reminds me of Joe Biden.)

Let's all just hope the "real" Watchmen's (somewhat) BETTER. As it is, I think good ol' Zack's got his work cut out.


Biden-Boy action figure, new from Mattel! 'Manic Mouth' and 'Treble Entendre' Accessories not pictured. Super O. sold separately.

Ok that was hilarious. Not sure if it would be so funny for people who haven't read the book (10 or so times at last reading) but that is great. Rorschach petting the german shepherds, Comedian hitting on Laurie, and especially the 3 Dr. Manhattan's sleeping in bed. For the people who have not read the book these will not make sense at all but they are brilliant.

so, we've sorta been over this, but what box office milestone does Watchmen need to reach for people to consider it a "success"? as it stands, i'd say a $70M opening weekend for an R-rated movie is a helluva start.. imdb estimates the budget to be $100M.. so, while it probably won't double that, it should make a 150% return... that's a success ain't it?

At this point, with at least $150M in production and marketing costs (not to mention legal fees, right?), I think Watchmen has to clear $175M, minimum, in theaters to be considered even remotely a "success". But the truth is that this is a film that -- much like Superman Returns -- may simply not be able to keep its head above water, at least not until well into the multiple DVD releases that will come later in '09. WB and Legendary have been pouring money into an aggressive and innovative viral marketing campaign, but they're going to back off, now, since it's obvious Watchmen will fail to reach the hoped-for $70M some industry "experts" were forecasting as late as Thursday. Moreover, this film, with its uniquely (if bizarrely) American perspective / obsession / fetish / "Nostalgia", WILL NOT play overseas. And I can reveal at this time that much of the multiplatform marketing efforts have been a flat-out BUST. All through 2009, you're going to see MASSIVELY discounted merchandise in bookstores all across America -- the "making of" and "art of the film" coffee-table books, the ill-conceived portrait collection, figurines, pretty much everything except the Black Freighter DVD and, perhaps, the Watchmen "motion comic". Even sales of the recent reprints of the comic, assembled into graphic novel form, have cooled. In fact, I haven't seen a promotional flop like this since Ang Lee's Hulk.

Hard to admit, but nowhere near as many people are watching Watchmen as I for one had hoped. Pity.


What do YOU see? A pretty butterfly? Some flowers? Clowns? Or Legendary Pictures' near-term fiscal outlook?

You're being too conservative. Anything can play overseas. Just look at films like Waterworld and Point Break.

Swedgin! wrote:

What do YOU see? A pretty butterfly? Some flowers? Clowns? Or Legendary Pictures' near-term fiscal outlook?

clowns? pretty sure he said "clouds"... clowns would be a scarier answer than "a dead dog"

I just finished Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar. It's sort of a "What If?" storyline where baby-Superman's pod crash lands in the Ukraine instead of Kansas.. Without giving away any of the story, it details how Superman's impact on the world would have changed had he been raised a socialist..

GREAT comic.. i wasn't sure what to expect from a Superman story by Mark Millar (who is also responsible for Ultimate X-Men, Wanted, Kick-Ass, and a couple Swamp Thing story-arcs)--but this one was really engaging.. i've always found the Superman character to be incredibly boring and only truly interesting when serving as a foil (to Batman, for example).. by placing him in a foreign context, we are able to explore character more deeply and gain a better insight regarding his motives..

in terms of themes, there are a lot of parallels between this and Watchmen.. for those of you who haven't read it yet, now would be a great time to do so..

Swedge - Like the old adgae says, "Buy the rumor and sell the news". The smart retailer/dealer types sold as much of the action figure, lunch box, chatzke type stuff before the movie opened and therefore won't be dumping it on Ebay for whatever the market will bear. The stupid ones (ie the ones that never learn) will be sitting on some of this stuff for years. From what I understand from my friend at the comic store, the only thing that the movie has inspired folks to buy is copies of the graphic novel so they can read the original story. He says that no matter how many they bring in, they sell out instantly.

There's a reason I sold my Watchmen original page 4 month before the movie came out instead of waiting for the movie's opening. I knew once the movie finally got here, I would never get anywhere near the stupid offer I got for it back then.

Smart guy, there, Kaiser.

Spannaus, I'll be checking out Red Sun, myself. Thanks much for the heads-up!

(P.S. Ukraine at mid-century was a communist republic, not a socialist one. But, hey, like I always say: What do you call a "good" socialist? A communist.) [Grin]



Sky Commandant and the World of Tomorrow

(Translation: "The Formation of [Aerial] Dirigible Squadrons... In Lenin's Name")
[The most prominent airships are named, clockwise from top: Stalin, Lenin, Old Bolshevik, and Pravda (Truth).]

Keyser Soze wrote:the only thing that the movie has inspired folks to buy is copies of the graphic novel so they can read the original story. He says that no matter how many they bring in, they sell out instantly.

that's interesting... i wonder if that will inspire at least a few repeat viewings of the movie--you know, once people have sat down and read the comic, they might want to give the movie another go around.. although, sadly, i imagine that a lot of those copies sold will just collect dust on bookshelves without ever being read

Where the book is concerned we've been selling it like hotcakes and it continued to really surge for us over the weekend. The soft cover we're selling as fast as we can put out and there have been a few takers for the hardcover anniversary edition that costs twice as much too. Of the other related books, we've had the best luck with the 'Watchman Film Companion.' There is an 'Art of The Watchmen' which is slowly selling and there is a ludicrously over-priced 'Watchmen Portrait Guide' which we've sold none of... and never will.

I've used 'The Watchmen' as an excuse to redo our Graphic Novels section of the store and am selling a crapload of other books. Anything with Alan Moore's name on it is selling (League of Extraordianry Gentlemen vols 1 & 2, Swamp Thing V.1, From Hell, V For Vendetta) very well and Frank Miller books have seen a real uptick as well. I'm guessing that 'The Watchmen' is getting some of the uninitiated interested in other books so I'm not complaining. The cool thing is I can order in basically anything. The less cool thing is about how I mentioned the uninitiated a sentence or two ago. Problem is I'm one of 'em! *lol*

Roodey, you and I are about to have a lot more in common. I just purchased a minority stake in a local comic book / collectibles / gaming concern, and will be taking over both special events coordination and publisher / distributor relations, corporately. My first official day is Monday the 16th.


Me

Congratulations and best wishes my friend! It's a cool field to work in and the people browsing and buying Graphic novels right now are great to just talk to. As soon as you tell them you're the one doing the purchasing, they're great about giving suggestions for things we should carry. I don't read a lot of it, but I can tell you what sells! *lol* I brought in two copies of Frank Miller's "Ronin" and they were both sold inside of 6 hours. Crazy. They didn't even have time to warm up from being in a box in the back of a delivery truck in the middle of a Canadian winter. Out on the shelf and gone almost immediately. I'm branching out and trying to sell things that just don't have a Marvel or DC label on them. "Preacher" is the latest experiment and it's doing really well for us too.

I'll happily accept any recommendations if you guys are in the giving mood.

Roodey - I'm assuming you already carry the Sandman GN's as well as Y the Last Man.

Yeah we got single editions of 'Sandman' as well as these hardcover 'Deluxe Collector's Editions.' The latter is probably priced too highly to realistically sell, but man do they ever look nice! I really love the idea behind "Y: the Last Man" and I'm hoping it'll take off. It's kind of fun to bring the whole series in. Right now I've got three people slowly buying their way through the series. Here's hoping they spread the word! I like Brian Vaughn. 'Pride of Baghdad' is another cool one of his we're carrying.

Kingodom Come and Marvels are other good choices. Not sure if today's audiences would be as thrilled with Love and Rockets as we were back in the 80's but it's still good none the less. The first four Cerebus "phone books" were an enjoyable read (And the author/artist is Canadian).

Fables is another good read for folks that aren't into Super Hero type comics, and Chris Ware's Acme Novelty Library is great.

Starman by James Robinson and Tony Harris is an ineresting take on the Super Hero genre.

Let me know if you would like any more suggestions.

Roodey: Hey, thanks, man! Dude, you really can't go wrong with Miller -- even his lesser-known titles (What If?, RoboCop vs. Terminator, his Daredevil efforts) are superb. If you haven't yet checked out his Martha Washington alternate-history series, you're really missing out... He's to the comics medium what Harry Turtledove is to the novel.

Preacher is one of my fave titles, btw. Can't wait to see what Sam Mendes does with the film adaptation.

I'm really starting to get into the whole merchandising thing -- one of my first projects is to effect a wholesale floor redesign of our two "flagship" locations, though they probably won't be completed until late in the year (assuming the economy doesn't tank completely and that we continue to experience solid growth, as we have been these last sixteen months or so).

Also, Y is fantastic. As far as graphic novels / compilations go, I highly recommend Neil Gaiman's Signal to Noise and Alex Ross's Marvels. Though my favorite title of ALL time is Dave Sim's Cerebus. I own autographed copies of nearly every "phone book" compilation, really a rare thing considering how hermetic and fan-averse Sim is.

I also quite love Groo (Mendicant!). Among current titles, right now I'm into Shrapnel and the Star Trek Countdown prequel.

Boussh: Well and good, and normally I'd be inclined to agree with you, but Watchmen's NOT your standard American export. Moreover, IMDb seems to back me up, for now anyway:

Watchmen: The Outlook's No Better Abroad
10 March 2009 2:32 AM, PDT

Overseas, ticket sales for Watchmen fell far short of predictions, just as they did domestically. The film took in what Daily Variety described as a "respectable" $27.5 million, although it opened in a whopping 5,097 theaters in 45 countries. The trade publication observed that "it faced challenges of offering a complex story line and untraditional approach to superheroes."

Another FANTASTIC title... Love to see Tim Burton and Johnny Depp take this series on