raven56706

In its full opening day, Watchmen pulled in an estimated $25.1 million on approximately 7,500 screens at 3,611 theaters, including an estimated $4.55 million from its first midnight shows. That ranks as the eighth-highest grossing opening day for a superhero movie and 32nd among all movies. Adjusted for ticket price inflation, other comic book adaptations rate higher opening days, including the first X-Men and Hulk pictures, but Watchmen's first day wasn't far off from the first weekends of previous Alan Moore adaptations V for Vendetta and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Among R-rated movies, Watchmen's opening day was fifth behind The Matrix Reloaded, 300, Sex and the City and The Passion of the Christ. 300, the previous picture from Watchmen director Zack Snyder and the one referenced prominently in Watchmen's advertising campaign, raked in $28.1 million in its opening day on around 4,800 screens at 3,103 sites. That picture was released in early March 2007 and holds the overall March record for opening weekend ($70.9 million).

Much further down the Friday box office chart, Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience had a steeper Friday-to-Friday drop than Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour did last year. Jonas Brothers plunged around 83 percent to an estimated $850,000, compared to Hannah Montana's 67 percent slide. The Jonas total is at less than $15 million in eight days, while Hannah had grossed more than three times as much at the same point.

Meanwhile, Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail landed in second with over $2.5 million, followed by Taken with over $2.3 million. Both Taken and Paul Blart: Mall Cop continued to demonstrate longevity: each had drops of about 20 percent Friday-to-Friday. Slumdog Millionaire slipped 40 percent to over $1.9 million, while He's Just Not That Into You rounded out the Top Five with more than $1.3 million.

The Antipodean

Decent but not astounding for Watchmen, about what was predicted. Going to see it today, I'm curious to see how it came out.

NoirFan

I'm pleased to see Coraline still in the top 10.

RichC2

There don't seem to be that many showings of Watchmen here. They were completely sold out last night but one theater had it on 3 screens (1 every hour) which obviously wasn't enough. Hugely saturated for an R movie, but not when compared to its PG-13 and below counterparts.

Michael T Hudson

Taken keeps plugging away. I still would like to see it.

fumanstan

Awesome for Watchmen. Just behind 300, which seems about right given the subject matter. I still don't understand how people were predicting under 40 million dollar openings for this, but at this rate it should be 60+ right?

BullGooseLoony

I guess that's around what I was expecting. $70-$75 million for the weekend makes sense, especially since it's R-rated and NOT a Matrix movie.

DeanoBKN

1# 24 million
2# 2 million

Maybe I've just never noticed, but has their ever been such a huge difference between the top 2 movies?

Artman

Looks like my 60ish prediction was about right.

Ronnie Dobbs

Paul Blart is actually moving up? Wow.

Zen Peckinpah

Watchmen does well. Paul Blart continues to puzzle the world. Liam Neeson Beats the Living Shit Out of Every Scumbag in France continues to do awesome.

Deftones

cool. so watchmen is well on it's way to $100 million. makes me happy that we may see more movie studios taking risks with comic properties, not making them normal summer popcorn fare.

wirefan

While the midnight showing is now common - does this make past comparisons a bit off? That showing accounted for almost 20% of the gross. I just don't like these absolute dollar comparisons (at least they mentioned inflation).

Rypro 525

if it does more then twilight does overall (i think that finished with over 170 mil), i will be happy

majorjoe23

I'm betting the week of the first summer blockbuster has seen much larger gaps.

Mr. Cinema

Why is Tyler Perry in the thread title?

I think Watchmen will end up with about with a little over $60 million. I think it's going to drop today, followed by a usual bigger drop on Sunday. Still impressive for an R rated movie opening in March.

Perhaps hapgilmore can explain why it didn't reach his absurd prediction of $115 million this weekend.

BTW, Steve Mason of Fantasy Moguls is predicting a $57 million opening, due to "running time and shaky word-of-mouth" and a final total of $145 million domestically.

Artman

Actually that ended up at 190 (unbelievably!), but I don't see the Watchmen making it past 150, even with a 75+ first wk. Not a failure, but not a resounding success... wonder if it'll be more popular overseas?

Mr. Cinema

#1 Spider-man: $114 million
#2 Scorpion King: $9 million

Mr. Cinema

Watchmen held even on Saturday. Looks like it'll bag nearly $70 million after all.

1. WATCHMEN WARNER BROS. 3,611 25,140,000 6,962 n/a 50,280,000
2. TYLER PERRY'S MADEA GOES TO JAIL LIONSGATE 2,151 2,493,000 1,159 -68% 72,688,000
3. TAKEN FOX 3,016 2,325,000 771 -49% 115,244,000
4. SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE FOX SEARCHLIGHT 2,890 1,964,000 680 -64% 122,440,000
5. HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU WARNER BROS. 2,445 1,327,000 543 -50% 83,274,000
6. PAUL BLART: MALL COP SONY 2,558 1,113,000 435 -59% 131,666,000
7. CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC DISNEY 2,290 1,018,000 445 -50% 37,263,000
8. JONAS BROTHERS: THE 3D CONCERT EXPERIENCE DISNEY 1,276 854,000 669 -81% 15,710,000
9. CORALINE FOCUS 1,959 786,000 401 -67% 63,938,000
10. GRAN TORINO WARNER BROS. 1,520 549,000 361 -62% 140,670,000
11. FRIDAY THE 13TH WARNER BROS. 1,705 457,000 268 -72% 62,753,000
12. STREET FIGHTER: THE LEGEND OF CHUN-LI FOX 1,164 411,000 353 -77% 6,583,000
13. FIRED UP SONY 1,879 162,694 87 -90% 11,085,439
14. UNDER THE SEA 3D WARNER BROS. 46 61,000 1,326 n/a 122,000

Mr. Cinema

Why in the world did Street Fighter even get a theatrical release? I'm not surprised since Fox continues to be the most moronic studio right now. That should have gone straight to video.

Matthew Chmiel

to Watchmen holding.

to Jonas Brothers having a 70-80% second weekend drop.

to Madea Goes to Jail becoming Tyler Perry's highest grossing movie.

chris_sc77

Box office mojo is now showing Watchmen made only 55 million for the whole weekend. Dont see how thats possible if it made another 25 million on Sat.

stingermck

One report on BOM says it only made 18 on Saturday

TheMovieman

Actually, they estimated it made $19m on Saturday... Decent take, though it's going to have a tough time making it to even $130m I'm guessing. I liked it and all, but in no way am I seeing it again, so I have to guess repeat viewing will be difficult and WOM is fairly mixed.

Mr. Cinema

The numbers I posted were from Showbizdata.com. They are showing $25 million for Saturday. That is quite a discrepancy. I'm betting BOM is correct.