Viewers aren’t responding to either of two recent fantasy-esque projects, the superhero movie Watchmen and NBC’s modern-day retelling of the King David story, Kings.
In movie theaters, Race to Witch Mountain, a movie debut, easily beat Watchmen in its second week of theatrical release: $25 million to $18.1 million. Even worse, the $140 million superhero production saw its revenue plunge 67% from the weekend before — worse than every previous superhero movie that had debuted over $50 million. Among all comic book adaptations, only Hulk and Hellboy II: The Golden Army had steeper drops.
Meanwhile, on TV, Kings‘ overnight ratings (which are not final) were disastrous: the show drew a mere 6 million viewers, making it NBC’s second worst premiere of the season (after Chopping Block). It didn’t even do well in either of the coveted 18-34 or 18-49 demographics. Ratings were akin to NBC’s fall fantasy-esque flop Crusoe.
Kings was an expensive show to produce and market, so it’s unlikely that NBC will pull the plug immediately. The show was given an initial order of 13 episodes, most of which have probably been produced. But unless ratings rise dramatically, it’s unlikely the show will continue beyond the episodes that have been filmed, and we may not even see all of them aired on NBC.
Meanwhile, a sequel to Watchmen was always doubtful; the movie is an adaptation of a popular graphic novel, and both the novel and the movie have a very definite ending. But the box-office plunge probably means no prequel or Watchmen-related movies will even be considered.
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Very sad news.
I’m sorry to say that I’m not surprised.
Watchmen was a brilliant movie based off a brilliant comic that does not have a very wide appeal. It’s anti-hero ideas are a tad dark for the normal superhero fans.
As for Kings, I think they would have done marketing it as a political drama with religious metaphors than as fantasy since it’s not very strong in what die hard fantasy fans usually watch for.
I not surprised by WATCHMEN at all. Although I loved the movie, I’ve heard nothing but bitching about it. It’s just too quirky, too niche, I guess, not mainstream, like you said.
KINGS surprises me a little bit. It seemed different in a good way–bold, daring. I thought it might be another LOST. But I think the concept was just too difficult to transmit, and a lot of people got confused, or started it and found it wasn’t what they expected.
I just finished watching Kings. I can honestly say I liked it, even though I found a few scenes to be ‘cheesy’ and overly dramatic. As far as pilots go, it was pretty good. I really hope the ratings for the third episode improve, it would be sad to see a show with so much potential get axed so soon.
I have yet to see Watchmen though (loved the graphic novel). Been hearing a lot of mixed reviews about it too, but mostly from those that absolutely loved it and those that absolutely hated it (no middle ground). I’m going to give it a view for the heck of it.
I’ve seen the first four eps. I actually liked the next two even better than the pilot. Agreed about the occasional cheesiness.
Did you see the KINGS episode Insurrection, it’s listed at TV.com as the 4th episode? I thought only Goliath, Prosperity, and First Night were available ahead of time to preview.
Did the two-hour premiere count as only one episode? I may not have seen the one you mention.
Thanks for replying, Brent. My boyfriend and I read your posts on AfterElton where you had mentioned the gay plot really comes in during the third episode. So, does that mean on Sunday we will see more about how Jack acts like a villian? Does it carry on to episode four?
I can’t wait to see what happens on Sunday.
I THINK it’s in the next ep, but truthfully I watched them all in a row, so it’s kind of blur. Jack takes David out for a night on the town. And there’s a separate subplot where Jake breaks up with his bf.
Oh, ok. I know the episode “First Night” is where Jack takes David out on the town. That airs in two weeks.
The episode this week, all it says in the episode guide is “Jack goes on an impromptu shopping spree.” Do you know what that’s about?
The promos/summery of these episodes are clearly leaving out any mention about the gay plotline. I’m trying to figure this all out.
thanks for your help.
Hmmmm, I honestly don’t remember.
I really like Kings , I’ve always been a Chris Egan fan and I find the premise of the show pretty interesting . As I was watching it , I was thinking how will this go down ratings wise as it seemed to be a bit too much in the fantasy realm for mainstream Tv . Over here in England I could see it doing well on BBC 2 or Channel Four .
Very cool computer effects on the look of the city which I liked too
yeah, I think the problem is that it just asks too much people who aren’t used to alternative worlds…