haven't seen Watchmen yet

[johncomic]

... but saw a news item about it that made me think:

They were talking about its performance at the box office, and someone pointed out that, because it's so long, most theatres can only run it once a night instead of a more usual two or even three. Therefore that limits the number of tickets you can sell in a given time, e.g., on opening weekend.

Obvious after it's spelled out for me, but I admit I never thought about that before. Now I see why studios are always fretting so much about movies running too long. Could Watchmen have doubled its gross this weekend if it was shorter?

Comments

[brandifer.livejournal.com]

I suspect you're right, though it definitely would not have been the same experience had it been produced to the 'standard' length. I haven't read the book, but even I could tell that it needed the time to develop all the threads which wove the story.

I'm not sure I'm a big enough fan now to see it again, but I'm glad I saw it, and doubly glad I saw it in the theatre as opposed to dvd. It's an AMAZING visual experience. (Though I could have done with a little less of the Glowing Penis of Doom. {no real spoiler}.) :-)

[ginsu.livejournal.com]

You would get improved results that weekend, perhaps, but the real goal is improved results total. And that is more about customer satisfaction than length. Satisfy customers and you will make way more money overall, length be damned.

Titanic and Return of the King are conspicuous proof points for this argument.