Comments on: Zack Snyder Talks ‘Watchmen’ Box Office & The Director’s Cut

By: Watchmen Director’s Cut Blu-ray Details Revealed - Screen Rant

Watchmen Director’s Cut Blu-ray Details Revealed - Screen Rant — Tue, 12 May 2009 17:04:09 +0000

[...] fans that the DVD/Blu-ray versions of Watchmen were going to be packed with extras, including a director’s cut of film which would run almost thirty minutes longer than the theatrical [...]

By: OVERLORD

OVERLORD — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 20:24:26 +0000

@ Michael

You have to click the link. Its not the Black Freighter.

By: michael

michael — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 20:03:03 +0000

i dont know if id call the Black Freighter obscure

By: OVERLORD

OVERLORD — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 19:55:50 +0000

I heard that this obscure animated cartoon of the Watchmen was going to be in the unrated director’s cut DVD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDDHHrt6l4w

By: Ruben

Ruben — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 09:15:20 +0000

I read the graphic novel and all I have to say is this: Theres a reason why the studio execs once said the movie is unfilmable. Cuz it sucked thats why. When are you guys gonna realize that Zack Snyder is all flash but no substance? When I saw 300 I wanted to personally go up to him and beat him up. He can’t direct actors worth a s*** and has to rely on other peoples materials to make money. I think Robert Rodriquez should of directed this movie, atleast he has one thing Snyder lacks and thats integrity.

By: Bill Blume

Bill Blume — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 22:29:27 +0000

Maybe it was just me, and I was expecting it and all, but I don’t see what all the fuss is about the blue dude’s “stash.” My wife and I saw it together, and I didn’t really feel it was all that “in our face” or awkward. To me, this has really been made into something more than it really is. I felt they used Dr. Manhattan’s blue aura to help make it a little less overt than it might have been otherwise. Of course, maybe the theater I went to just didn’t have a very good projector. haha

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:32:47 +0000

I felt awkward enough just with guys.

By: michael

michael — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:17:48 +0000

“I’m just glad I didn’t see it with any female friends.”

i guess i made that mistake

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:19:47 +0000

I’m pretty sure word of mouth killed this movie’s box office numbers. People are just not prepared to handle the amount of full frontal male nudity in this movie. That is all I heard about after opening weekend on the radio and from people who saw it. I read the graphic novel, and even though I expected it, Dr. Manhattan’s many nude appearances still made me uncomfortable. I’m just glad I didn’t see it with any female friends.

By: Bill Blume

Bill Blume — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:42:17 +0000

The problem with “Watchmen” is that it’s really a movie (and even a comic book) that can only be *fully* appreciated by comic book fans. This is why it doesn’t have a good shot at reaching a mainstream audience.

I saw the film, and I loved it. For those that wish the squid had been in there, I must disagree. The solution the filmmakers came up with was a much better one. Even in the comic book, the whole squid thing was kind of hokey, and I also enjoyed the comic book a lot. Perhaps the main reason I didn’t mind the alteration was that the film’s writers kept the characters true to themselves even with the different events. Rorschach’s fate at the end of the film was still in keeping with that character (Jackie Earle Haley also deserves a lot of credit for capturing the essence of that character). Films can never be completely true to the original material. It just can’t be done. The best a film can ever do is capture the spirit/mood/moral lesson of the book/comic book. Watchmen, the film, succeeds in that regard. Unfortunately, that’s also why it couldn’t succeed with the mainstream public, which is a pity.

By: Longshanks

Longshanks — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 11:45:14 +0000

@ Vic

Yeah,I know that’s not what you were implying,but I just thought that I would illustrate that point.

And not to try and contradict myself,but it seems like more rated R movies do require more attention from the viewer than your typical PG or PG-13 movies.So like midnite said,most people don’t have the attention span to actually pay attention to a 3 hour movie,which may be why they don’t make as much money in the theaters.

Of course there are exceptions.

By: victor

victor — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 08:31:27 +0000

And it doesn’t matter what rating you put to it, if they don’t get it they don’t get it. Also what didn’t help the film was the lack of major talent.You can’t really sell the movie on no-names mind you the main ones such as wilson, and haley and as of late the actor who was the father on Supernatural(sorry forgot his name at the moment) and recently on Grosse Anatomy,these actors are just starting to get popular but now may have been typecast due to this film.

By: victor

victor — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 08:25:38 +0000

Watchmen is to comic book adaptions like Bladerunner or Dune was to Sci-Fi films…No one is going to get it right now,because its an epic,thinking movie..Its going to take your average person more than 10 times to view it and understand it,then 20 years before someone in this generation to come out and even think of remakeing it or even considering a sequel. This is not DK nor is it Superman. The only people that got this flick were the ones who have read the book 10 times or more in the past 20 years and were anticipating the movie..

By: Vic Holtreman

Vic Holtreman — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 03:08:37 +0000

@Longshanks

I never said that PG-13 movies were automatically BETTER. Actually the movies that make the MOST money at the box office are family friendly PG and G rated movies. Go figure.

@michael

You may be partially correct, but I think audiences were expecting a typical superhero movie like Spider-Man, Iron Man or The Dark Knight and instead got a film with extreme graphic violence, nudity and sex. That’s not what they were looking for when they walked into the theater. It just wasn’t marketed very well – and even if it had been, I don’t know if the wide audience would have been there for it.

Vic

By: michael

michael — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 23:56:01 +0000

Its not that DURING the movie you had to think but AFTER the movie it definitely provoked some thought. The American movie industry has lost all ability to challenge mans/womans way of life, and make him/her think of how he/she and his government is running. The last movie i saw that did that was made in the 60’s and it was called 2001:A Space Odyssey.

By: Longshanks

Longshanks — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 22:54:01 +0000

@ Mdnite

I don’t think that there is really that much thinking that’s required to understand Watchmen,but I do agree with everything else you said.

By: Midnite

Midnite — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 22:18:53 +0000

I think the real reason that the movie didn’t do well is that the American public in general can’t deal with too much thinking at the movies. And you had to do a lot of thinking to make it through this film and properly understand it – regardless of the popcorn aspect of the violence etc. Also the fact that it shows the U.S. in a cynical and not too friendly light made it difficult to market to a recession depressed public.
On a related note, I saw the film in my hometown of Toronto last night and it the theatre seats looked to be about was about 60% sold.

By: Longshanks

Longshanks — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 21:32:04 +0000

@ Vic

I don’t know.I know statistically PG-13 movies make more money,but that doesn’t mean that all of them are better movies.

I just looked up the movie Se7en,which was number 1 at the box office for 4 weeks,and if you look at all the other movies that were out at the time,most of them were rated R.In the 5th week when it dropped from 1st to 3rd,the number 1 movie that week was Get Shorty,another rated R movie.It came out in September,after the big summer rush of movies.

There is obviously a correlation of when a movie is released,what the studio expects it to do in the theaters,and how hard they will fight with the producers and the MPAA to give it a lower rating in order to procure a higher box office draw.

And that could be the reason that Watchmen was released in late winter/early spring with an R rating instead of mid summer with a PG-13 rating.Maybe the studio didn’t really expect much from it and gave it a release date that they would feel more optimistic about,instead of releasing it in the summer where it would’ve been buried.

By: Vic Holtreman

Vic Holtreman — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 20:50:54 +0000

I think this makes it very clear as to why studios fight hard to make movies PG-13 instead of R.

Vic

By: Longshanks

Longshanks — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 20:26:58 +0000

I agree with those of you who are not surprised that this movie didn’t do as well as the so called “experts” expected.

I think that the strength of the story in the GN is the character development,and that goes without saying.the movie got that down pretty good,but the other strength in the GN is the little subtleties in the story that I really don’t think that the movie captured.

My main problem with the Watchmen story in general,and probably why it didn’t make a boat load of money at the box office,is that there is way too much character development and not nearly enough action going on.Now of course that’s not what’s the driving force of the story but I think that’s exactly why some people who weren’t that familiar with the story just looked at it as some “wannabe” type of superhero movie.

I could be wrong but that’s just my opinion.