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}.) :-)