‘Watchmen’ Guards Box-Office #1
Originally published at Watchmen News. You can comment here or there.
By Elisabeth Rappe
From www.mtv.com:
The Box-Office Top Five
#1 “Watchmen” ($55.7 million)
#2 “Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail” ($8.8 million)
#3 “Taken” ($7.45 million)
#4 “Slumdog Millionaire” ($6.9 million)
#5 “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” ($4.2 million)
Who wasn’t watching the “Watchmen” this weekend? The hotly anticipated comic adaptation opened with a solid $55.7 million, the highest opening of 2009 so far. But box-office analysts have practically declared its debut a failure, since it fell short of expectations and director Zack Snyder’s “300,” which broke March records with a debut of $70.9 million in 2007. But considering that the Warner Bros. film was based on a graphic novel many moviegoers are unfamiliar with and starred lesser-known actors, the film did remarkably well. Repeat viewings from “Watchmen” fans and a weak adult slate next weekend will probably see it hold strong.
Though “Watchmen” kept business up at the box office, it was one of the calmer weekends 2009 has seen. The lack of new competition meant that the rest of the top five was made up of familiar faces. At #2, “Madea Goes to Jail” brought in $8.8 million in its third week of release, for a box-office total of $76.5 million.
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