Music and Marketing for Watchmen
Originally, James Cameron had intended on working with prolific movie composer Brad Fiedel, who had previously worked with on the Terminator series, to create the score for Watchmen. However, Fiedel surprisingly refused, suggesting Philip Glass as a better fit for the material. His contention was that the heavily minimalist influences in Glass’ work were a better fit for the chronic tone of much of the film, especially with regards to Doctor Manhattan and his relation to time and fate. Cameron was initially taken aback by such a move on Fiedel’s part, and skeptical from what he knew about Glass that the composer would sign on. “’I can't shake the idea that no matter how good the script is, no matter how good the production values are, no matter how timely the message and complicated the moral dilemma... I can't shake the idea that Glass would score for what's, at its most basic level, an action movie based on a comic book. He seems too highbrow’”, Cameron said when relating then the story later. “Then Brad smiled and said “Hey man, the guy scored fucking Candyman. You can get him”. Glass would indeed sign on.
However, it was estimated by producer Joel Silver that maybe a little less than half of all the music onscreen would be credited to whoever the film’s composer would be. The idea was to help make the film function as a cultural touchstone and a dark parody of the 20th century, lots of popular music would be used. Many songs from the past several decades would be used in the soundtrack, with the “ending point” being the 1980’s. In the end, the rights were bought to fourteen different songs, though only twelve of them would make it to the screen (the unused tracks, “Don’t Dream It’s Over” by Crowded House and “Sugar, Sugar” by the Archies, would be included on the Music of Watchmen CD). Some critics would actually complain about the overuse of the popular songs in the soundtrack, saying they were distracting in some parts. Roger Ebert would opine in an otherwise positive review that he found the score by Glass more interesting anyway. However, the placing of “Where Is My Mind?” by The Pixies over the ending with Seymour at The New Frontiersman possibly deciding the fate of the world, leading into the credits, was regarded as a strong decision, creating one of the most iconic single movie scenes of the 1990’s.
The first teaser actually appeared at the premiere of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park one June 11, 1993. However, as filming had not yet completed, it was a very simple trailer- some narration from Rorschach on a black screen, interspersed with very short, almost subliminal clips from the film, with Philip Glass’ “Prophecies" playing in the background.. Also thrown into the mix was, in bolded white letters, the text “From Director James Cameron- Based on the Graphic Novel by Alan Moore and David Gibbons- Arnold Schwarzenegger- Kurt Russell- Sharon Stone- WATCHMEN- Summer 1994”. A more complete trailer was ready by the winter of 1993, but for what it was, the original teaser was very effective. It was so confusing, it got people asking questions- leading them to the comic for answers. DC would note that sales of the graphic novel spiked throughout 1993 and 1994.
Which led to the question of secrecy on the project. Studio executives wanted everything to be previewed for the trailers to be released in early 1994. This included the actor playing Rorschach, Mark Hamill, and the appearance of the Squid. While Cameron allowed Mark Hamill’s identity to be known prior to Watchmen’s release, he was adamant that the Squid not appear. He knew that the comic was becoming more popular, so more people would be aware of the nature of the climax, but he wanted the revamped design of the giant monster to be a surprise, along with its rampage in New York. Cameron eventually won out on this matter.
As the film was geared for a mature audience, no toys would be produced in the wake of its original release. However, Capcom did develop a beat ‘em up game based on Watchmen for the Sega Genesis video game console, which was released in July of 1994 to a mixed reaction. Marketing was accomplished in other, more unique ways. Posters were made for each of the main characters, with the Rorschach poster in particular - featuring the masked vigilante walking out of the shadows with a huge smear of blood across his chest, the words "This city fears me. I have seen it's true face" - becoming very popular on it's own in the mid-1990's, especially on college campuses. Blood-stained smiley pins became ubiquitous in comic shops. In many theaters, the poster for the film was simply a paper replica of the Doomsday Clock from the graphic novel behind glass. Each day closer to Watchmen's premiere, it was moved just a smidge closer to midnight. However, the biggest tie-in ploy was DC reaching out to Moore and Gibbons to write more comics set in the Watchmen universe, which led to a surprising eventual outcome.
Watchmen’s Release
Watchmen finally hit theaters on July 1st, 1994- incidentally, exactly three years after the premiere (but not the wide theatrical release) of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Cameron’s last picture. Well, perhaps it wasn't incidental. The July 4th weekend was, and remains, a very lucrative time to debut a movie. Fox’s multi-million dollar marketing campaign had been in full swing by then, and the summer of 1994 was popularly described in the press of “The Summer of Watchmen” . In late June, one small comic shop owner in Manhattan described the scene outside his store and among his clientele. “We had people packing in my shop, flustered people, asking me what this Watchmen shit was all about. (I) Pointed them to the (Watchmen) rack. In the week or two leading up to the premiere, thing had to be reloaded like three times a day. The streets outside my store, and there was an RPG (role-playing game) joint right in front of my place, so yeah, was littered with posters. (It) Was like a scene outta the comic, y’know, right after the Squid hit… Yeah, some of my more regular regulars saw The Crow like five times just to see the five-minute trailer.”
Opening weekend box office was $59 million dollars, or, to again compare to T2, nearly $5 million more than the opening weekend of Cameron’s last directorial effort. It especially did well in the lucrative 18-35 male demographic, who made up nearly 60% of the audience. Competitors for the same weekend premiere, including Baby’s Day Out, Blown Away, and fellow superhero flick The Shadow were absolutely swamped, and all would continue to do poorly throughout what remained of their run. Going into the second weekend, though, would be the big challenge, because the competition had upped the ante.
On July 6th, Forrest Gump, a dramedy directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, and Gary Sinise was released. It revolved around the tale of a mentally challenged Southern man (Hanks), who inadvertently inserts himself into most of the major historical events of the latter part of the 20th century. Its sympathetic lead character was probably meant as a focal point for all the experiences of the Baby Boomer generation as a whole. In fact, the similar premises of Forrest Gump and Watchmen would actually strike critics as fitting: both were about fictional characters making their own implicit commentaries on the 20th century. Indeed, it’s fairly common to hear Watchmen referred to as a “darker Gump” or Forrest Gump as “a more light-hearted Watchmen”. However, long-term academic musings were not the top priorities of studio execs. Everyone waited in bated breath to see if Watchmen would be competitive its second weekend, against real competition.
And it did. The superhero extravaganza pulled in $30 million in its second weekend, or a less than 50% drop from its first weekend. While Gump pulled in a respectable $22 million that weekend to generally positive reviews, a second-place showing in its first weekend would hobble its performance throughout the rest of the year. The other two films debuting that weekend, Angels in the Outfield and Spanking the Monkey were crushed by the competition.
Though the common misconception in the controversy surrounding the notorious 67th Academy Award controversy was that Watchmen had crushed Forrest Gump in the box office by comparison, a quick internet check would reveal that Gump actually out-grossed Watchmen in the international box office by nearly $100 million by the end of both of their theatrical runs. This is because Watchmen performed incredibly strongly in its first few weeks, mainly the month of July, before tapering off, while Forrest Gump was the metaphorical “little engine that could” doing consistently well enough for a prolonged period of time throughout the year, making up for time lost at the beginning. As it stands, though, Watchmen would become the movie that defined the summer of 1994, at once both dark social commentary, and spectacular popcorn fare. That is, in the opinion of some critics…
…
Watchmen’s Box Office
Domestic: $256,958,954
Foreign: $219,308,749
Total: $476,267,703
Originally, James Cameron had intended on working with prolific movie composer Brad Fiedel, who had previously worked with on the Terminator series, to create the score for Watchmen. However, Fiedel surprisingly refused, suggesting Philip Glass as a better fit for the material. His contention was that the heavily minimalist influences in Glass’ work were a better fit for the chronic tone of much of the film, especially with regards to Doctor Manhattan and his relation to time and fate. Cameron was initially taken aback by such a move on Fiedel’s part, and skeptical from what he knew about Glass that the composer would sign on. “’I can't shake the idea that no matter how good the script is, no matter how good the production values are, no matter how timely the message and complicated the moral dilemma... I can't shake the idea that Glass would score for what's, at its most basic level, an action movie based on a comic book. He seems too highbrow’”, Cameron said when relating then the story later. “Then Brad smiled and said “Hey man, the guy scored fucking Candyman. You can get him”. Glass would indeed sign on.
However, it was estimated by producer Joel Silver that maybe a little less than half of all the music onscreen would be credited to whoever the film’s composer would be. The idea was to help make the film function as a cultural touchstone and a dark parody of the 20th century, lots of popular music would be used. Many songs from the past several decades would be used in the soundtrack, with the “ending point” being the 1980’s. In the end, the rights were bought to fourteen different songs, though only twelve of them would make it to the screen (the unused tracks, “Don’t Dream It’s Over” by Crowded House and “Sugar, Sugar” by the Archies, would be included on the Music of Watchmen CD). Some critics would actually complain about the overuse of the popular songs in the soundtrack, saying they were distracting in some parts. Roger Ebert would opine in an otherwise positive review that he found the score by Glass more interesting anyway. However, the placing of “Where Is My Mind?” by The Pixies over the ending with Seymour at The New Frontiersman possibly deciding the fate of the world, leading into the credits, was regarded as a strong decision, creating one of the most iconic single movie scenes of the 1990’s.
The first teaser actually appeared at the premiere of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park one June 11, 1993. However, as filming had not yet completed, it was a very simple trailer- some narration from Rorschach on a black screen, interspersed with very short, almost subliminal clips from the film, with Philip Glass’ “Prophecies" playing in the background.. Also thrown into the mix was, in bolded white letters, the text “From Director James Cameron- Based on the Graphic Novel by Alan Moore and David Gibbons- Arnold Schwarzenegger- Kurt Russell- Sharon Stone- WATCHMEN- Summer 1994”. A more complete trailer was ready by the winter of 1993, but for what it was, the original teaser was very effective. It was so confusing, it got people asking questions- leading them to the comic for answers. DC would note that sales of the graphic novel spiked throughout 1993 and 1994.
Which led to the question of secrecy on the project. Studio executives wanted everything to be previewed for the trailers to be released in early 1994. This included the actor playing Rorschach, Mark Hamill, and the appearance of the Squid. While Cameron allowed Mark Hamill’s identity to be known prior to Watchmen’s release, he was adamant that the Squid not appear. He knew that the comic was becoming more popular, so more people would be aware of the nature of the climax, but he wanted the revamped design of the giant monster to be a surprise, along with its rampage in New York. Cameron eventually won out on this matter.
As the film was geared for a mature audience, no toys would be produced in the wake of its original release. However, Capcom did develop a beat ‘em up game based on Watchmen for the Sega Genesis video game console, which was released in July of 1994 to a mixed reaction. Marketing was accomplished in other, more unique ways. Posters were made for each of the main characters, with the Rorschach poster in particular - featuring the masked vigilante walking out of the shadows with a huge smear of blood across his chest, the words "This city fears me. I have seen it's true face" - becoming very popular on it's own in the mid-1990's, especially on college campuses. Blood-stained smiley pins became ubiquitous in comic shops. In many theaters, the poster for the film was simply a paper replica of the Doomsday Clock from the graphic novel behind glass. Each day closer to Watchmen's premiere, it was moved just a smidge closer to midnight. However, the biggest tie-in ploy was DC reaching out to Moore and Gibbons to write more comics set in the Watchmen universe, which led to a surprising eventual outcome.
Watchmen’s Release
Watchmen finally hit theaters on July 1st, 1994- incidentally, exactly three years after the premiere (but not the wide theatrical release) of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Cameron’s last picture. Well, perhaps it wasn't incidental. The July 4th weekend was, and remains, a very lucrative time to debut a movie. Fox’s multi-million dollar marketing campaign had been in full swing by then, and the summer of 1994 was popularly described in the press of “The Summer of Watchmen” . In late June, one small comic shop owner in Manhattan described the scene outside his store and among his clientele. “We had people packing in my shop, flustered people, asking me what this Watchmen shit was all about. (I) Pointed them to the (Watchmen) rack. In the week or two leading up to the premiere, thing had to be reloaded like three times a day. The streets outside my store, and there was an RPG (role-playing game) joint right in front of my place, so yeah, was littered with posters. (It) Was like a scene outta the comic, y’know, right after the Squid hit… Yeah, some of my more regular regulars saw The Crow like five times just to see the five-minute trailer.”
Opening weekend box office was $59 million dollars, or, to again compare to T2, nearly $5 million more than the opening weekend of Cameron’s last directorial effort. It especially did well in the lucrative 18-35 male demographic, who made up nearly 60% of the audience. Competitors for the same weekend premiere, including Baby’s Day Out, Blown Away, and fellow superhero flick The Shadow were absolutely swamped, and all would continue to do poorly throughout what remained of their run. Going into the second weekend, though, would be the big challenge, because the competition had upped the ante.
On July 6th, Forrest Gump, a dramedy directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, and Gary Sinise was released. It revolved around the tale of a mentally challenged Southern man (Hanks), who inadvertently inserts himself into most of the major historical events of the latter part of the 20th century. Its sympathetic lead character was probably meant as a focal point for all the experiences of the Baby Boomer generation as a whole. In fact, the similar premises of Forrest Gump and Watchmen would actually strike critics as fitting: both were about fictional characters making their own implicit commentaries on the 20th century. Indeed, it’s fairly common to hear Watchmen referred to as a “darker Gump” or Forrest Gump as “a more light-hearted Watchmen”. However, long-term academic musings were not the top priorities of studio execs. Everyone waited in bated breath to see if Watchmen would be competitive its second weekend, against real competition.
And it did. The superhero extravaganza pulled in $30 million in its second weekend, or a less than 50% drop from its first weekend. While Gump pulled in a respectable $22 million that weekend to generally positive reviews, a second-place showing in its first weekend would hobble its performance throughout the rest of the year. The other two films debuting that weekend, Angels in the Outfield and Spanking the Monkey were crushed by the competition.
Though the common misconception in the controversy surrounding the notorious 67th Academy Award controversy was that Watchmen had crushed Forrest Gump in the box office by comparison, a quick internet check would reveal that Gump actually out-grossed Watchmen in the international box office by nearly $100 million by the end of both of their theatrical runs. This is because Watchmen performed incredibly strongly in its first few weeks, mainly the month of July, before tapering off, while Forrest Gump was the metaphorical “little engine that could” doing consistently well enough for a prolonged period of time throughout the year, making up for time lost at the beginning. As it stands, though, Watchmen would become the movie that defined the summer of 1994, at once both dark social commentary, and spectacular popcorn fare. That is, in the opinion of some critics…
…
Watchmen’s Box Office
Domestic: $256,958,954
Foreign: $219,308,749
Total: $476,267,703