Watchmen delayed??

Hi all,

I've read a couple articles regarding Fox trying to block the release 'Watchmen.' What do you guys think the chances of this happening are?

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.reuters.com/fox-will-fight-quotwatchmenquot-delay-reuters

I see the possibility being slim-to-none. Lawsuits like this happen all the time and usually nothing substantial happens. Though no settlement will be happening any time soon, I think it will still open on March 6th simply because too much time and money has already been spent developing, filming and promoting the film.

Even if it is delayed, I don't see there being too long of a delay. A couple months at most and the fall being a worst-case scenario.

In fact, here are some likely new release dates for if the film is delayed:

April 24th
Currently At The Spot: Earth (on Wed.), The Soloist, Fighting, Obsessed, Vanilla Gorilla
Reason For Taking The Spot: Warner Bros. could get back at Fox by the scheduling the film one week ahead of X-Men Origins: Wolverine and potentially start a comic book hero war (DC vs. Marvel, Warner Bros. vs. Fox, graphic novel vs. comic book, mature vs. family-friendly, endless differences). The downside is that it could kill both films and/or cause fewer theatres to book the film due to five other films at the date.

June 5th
Currently At The Spot: Land Of The Lost
Reason Of Taking The Spot: The spot is basically empty and we all know that Land Of The Lost is going to be this year's Speed Racer. It could be number one for as many as three weeks at this spot. But the downside is that R-rated films aren't usually blockbusters at the beginning of summer and it will have to compete with Sam Raimi's Drag Me To Hell and Terminator Salvation for its audience.

July 31st
Currently At The Spot: They Came From Upstairs, Bandslam
Reason For Taking The Spot: At this spot, it would be the only new major release aside from Harry Potter's third week. In the heart of summer, it could really make a $70-80 million opening. However, G.I. Joe opening the next week would probably cause a huge second week drop and a low multiplier even with good word-of-mouth.

September 18th
Currently At The Spot: Cloudly With A Chance Of Meatballs, Jennifer's Body
Reason For Taking The Spot: It seems that every year, there is one big hit in late September. In this spot, Watchmen could pull a Spider-Man 3 and bring in more filmgoers than all the other films combined. Plus it would give dignity to a spot currently held by Andy Samberg and Megan Fox. However September is also a weak month and another superhero movie, The Surrogates, opens a week later.

October 16th
Currently At The Spot: Where The Wild Things Are
Reason For Taking The Spot: Warner Bros. is either going to move back Where The Wild Things Are again or write off the $75 million investment and dump it so that will open up the spot. Similar to the other spots, this would easily make the film Number 1 on opening weekend and perhaps the next two with only Saw VI and Joss Whedon's latest disappointment (Cabin In The Woods, sounds like an Evil Dead ripoff) facing it. And you know what, I don't see any drawbacks with this date.

November 25th
Currently At The Spot: Old Dogs
Reason For Taking The Spot: It's a holiday weekend and this will give something for the adults to see while the kids are seeing Old Dogs so it mean nice Thanksgiving numbers. However Sherlock Holmes opens the week before and since that's probably going to be PG-13 along with the fact that it has bigger names (Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law and Rachel McAdams), the target crowd will probably see that for being a more attractive film.

December 11th
Currently At The Spot: nothing
Reason For Taking The Spot: In 2007, Warner Bros. managed a hit with I Am Legend at the same spot. Plus the date would make the film the first big event film of December. However, Avatar opens a week later and would likely take Watchmen's audience as a result. But like my April 24th suggestion, this could once again be a revenge spot against Fox.

There is a good discussion about this going on in the free for all forum.

whoops! my bad...