Watchmen Weekend Tracking

All of our Imax theaters here in the Burgh are first come first serve. I'd rather see it from my front row barca lounger in the "Dark Side VIP" seats in the regular theater. We call 'em the "Dark Side" seats because once you've sat in 'em, you'll never want to go back to regular movie theater type seats agin.

In the IMAX theater I went to in CT it is assigned seating. also there is a Director's hall in the Cinema de Lux at the mall by my school that we go to that is assigned. Other than that, all theaters are first come first serve

From Steve Mason's Twitter (stevemason323):

# Tomorrow I will go online with an official prediction for WATCHMEN. Looks like $60M+. Maybe $65M-$70M. Don't hold me to it yet.about 16 hours ago from web

From Deadline Hollywood Daily:

With No Competition This Weekend, 'Watchmen' Scores 90% Of Online Ticket Sales

Fandango Five – Ticket Sales as of today at 9AM PT)
Watchmen (90%)
Jonas Brothers 3-D Concert Movie (3%)
Slumdog Millionaire (1%)
Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail (less than 1%)
Coraline 3-D (less than 1%)

From Hollywood Reporter http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i4cd9ca42f5b6a830a53d3647e6e5ba4c

However high "Watchmen" grosses can climb, the superhero actioner sure will be playing wide: Its 3,611 playdates will be the most ever for an R-rated film.

Further aiding its much-watched bow, the Zack Snyder-helmed comic book adaptation will play in an impressive 1,600 locations starting at midnight Thursday. That's substantially more than the 656 midnight shows that helped Snyder's ancient Greece actioner "300" fetch an incredible $28 million in only the first day of its $71 million opening weekend in March 2007.

Damn! I waited too late! The Imax showing near me is sold out but I can still get into the normal boring presentation.

Never wait for IMAX. I booked mine more than a week in advance and secured the best seats. I was very pleased with myself. Now only 6 hours till showtime!!!

I wish I had that much advance scheduling. I literally just found out my weekend was 'free' today. And free is in quotation marks since i still have a shitload to do.

Ah, see I have been planning this event for a couple of months, so there was nothing more important on my calender than this.

I guess the IMAX theater I went to just sucks because I could barely tell that it was any different and really it wasn't any more enjoyable than watching a movie in a regular theater. Maybe I was just expecting more.

You must have gone to an IMAX Digital, Geez. The screens are smaller in those because most of them are conversion jobs from regular screens to make them bigger.

That was probably it. Thanks.

So is the IMAX digital converted screen worth the extra money? We have one close and I was planning to see Watchmen there, but if it's not I may drive farther or just see a regular show...

If that is what I saw, I would say no. I saw The Dark Knight on my second viewing of it and didn't get anything more out of the experience.

geezer9687 wrote:I guess the IMAX theater I went to just sucks because I could barely tell that it was any different and really it wasn't any more enjoyable than watching a movie in a regular theater. Maybe I was just expecting more.

as Boosh implied, not all "IMAX Theaters" are created equal.. the film itself is a standard format, but i've been to the whole spectrum of IMAX theaters in terms of quality.. the best have been a dazzling experience while the worst have been literally nauseating.. but even at its best, i'd still take the Alamo Drafthouse over any of 'em.. honestly, how has the rest of the country (not to mention WORLD) not adapted this approach to the cinema experience??

DHD - Watchmen could do 70M (only the title is available now)

Box Office Guru - 63M

NSpan wrote:
as Boosh implied, not all "IMAX Theaters" are created equal.. the film itself is a standard format, but i've been to the whole spectrum of IMAX theaters in terms of quality.. the best have been a dazzling experience while the worst have been literally nauseating.. but even at its best, i'd still take the Alamo Drafthouse over any of 'em.. honestly, how has the rest of the country (not to mention WORLD) not adapted this approach to the cinema experience??

What's at the Drafthouse?

Beer, wine and the QT Film Fest.

full menu--of GOOD food (pork chops, steaks, burgers, pizzas, salads, sandwiches, fried pickles, potato skins, fried mozzarella, salads, etc), GOOD drinks (GREAT beer selection, sodas, teas, coffees, desserts), etc etc..

more importantly, every other row of seating has been torn out to make room for a "server aisle" which gives the patrons personal bar space (to set food and drinks on) and room for the servers to deliver your order without disturbing the movie..

WIDE seats with slight recline.. very comfortable.. stadium seating.. great picture and sound quality.. laid-back staff and patrons.. pre-show entertainment (a series of trailers--real and fake-- and a miscellanea of other video gems) that is custom-trailered for each feature..

oh, and movie tix are $6.25 anytime

they also play obscure horror, thriller, and exploitation movies for $1 a couple nights a week..

NSpan wrote:full menu--of GOOD food (pork chops, steaks, burgers, pizzas, salads, sandwiches, fried pickles, potato skins, fried mozzarella, salads, etc), GOOD drinks (GREAT beer selection, sodas, teas, coffees, desserts), etc etc..

more importantly, every other row of seating has been torn out to make room for a "server aisle" which gives the patrons personal bar space (to set food and drinks on) and room for the servers to deliver your order without disturbing the movie..

WIDE seats with slight recline.. very comfortable.. stadium seating.. great picture and sound quality.. laid-back staff and patrons.. pre-show entertainment (a series of trailers--real and fake-- and a miscellanea of other video gems) that is custom-trailered for each feature..

oh, and movie tix are $6.25 anytime

they also play obscure horror, thriller, and exploitation movies for $1 a couple nights a week..

Isn't the Drafthouse where they watch each new episode of Heroes on the big screen every Monday?

But yeah, they have something here like that called Movie Tavern. I always wondered though, isn't it distracting having waiters deliver stuff and walking through the aisles during the movie?

Only hours away till Game Time.

In less than 7 hours it's IMAX time.

The hype, the anticipation, the buzz.

"Maybe. Or Maybe somebody is picking off costumed heroes."

I have a feeling this won't be just a one-viewing film. Two is a guarantee, even three is very likely.

Watchmen will have legs. The great word of mouth will spread to the non-readers, non-fanboys. 2nd & 3rd weekend numbers should stay really good. The running time & the Hard R-rating makes it an extremely tough road to 300 domestically. 200 I think is a guarantee.

Predictions:

Opening Weekend - 78.5
Domestic - 270
Worldwide - 510

Having seen the flick, I just don't see it happening. There may be muliple viewings from the fanboy/geek sector, but Average Joe will not be seeing this more than once. I just don't think there are enough of the fanboy/geeks to amke multiple viewings that big of a factor. Word of mouth is going to be mixed. Reviewers not familiar with the source material aren't going to know what to make of it, and taking this story on face value without any sort of familiarity does not bode well for a stellar review.

I'd love to see a 70 OW, but I honestly believe it'll be mid 50's. Sure hope I'm wrong though

NYC you expect it to become the 3rd highest grossing R-rated film ever? And by 35 million. Only 4 R-rated films have grossed over 230 million, and you see it blowing that away. I'm sorry but I think you are a little crazy when it comes to Watchmen. I don't think it will reach even 200.

According to boxoffice.com the Watchmen has made 4.6 million off of midnight showings. That is bigger than the 3.5 million Iron Man made last year before going on to a 98.6 million dollar weekend. I don't think it is going to get close to Iron Man's numbers but it looks like 70 or 80 mill is definatey in play, in my opinion

Yeah Mason updated his status and he now says "low 70s is possible."

I'm very impressed. I did not think it would open that big. Although i still think it has a limited demographic, so i'm thinking very big opening with big drops. If it does open to 70 million, i see it doing about 150-165 million.