The Watch
| Budget: $68 million | Financed by: FOX; Dune Entertainment |
|---|---|
| Domestic Gross: $35,353,000 | Domestic Distributor: FOX |
| Overseas Gross: $32,914,862 | Directed by: Akiva Schaffer |
Starring: Ben Stiller Vince Vaughn | Produced by: Shawn Levy |
The Watch was first pitched in 2008 and began development at FOX. FOX financed the $68 million comedy, with some capital from Dune Entertainment and considering the amount of product placement on display, The Watch should have practically been payed for. Part alien invasion tale, part male bonding comedy, part Costco commercial, The Watch just never clicked with audiences during its expensive marketing spend. The original title of Neighborhood Watch was changed two months before release, to avoid any association with the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin shooting and a Colorado movie theater shooting spree the weekend before, didn’t help either. Harkins theater chain also refused to show the film after being unable to come to terms with exhibition fees with FOX.
The Watch was dated for July 27 and it bowed against Step Up Revolution. Reviews were awful and FOX had modest expectations for the film and did not expect an opening north of $15 million. The Watch came in lower than expected with $12,750,297 — placing #3 for the weekend led by The Dark Knight Rises. Audiences gave The Watch a terrible C+ cinemascore and the pic saw a 48.8% second weekend decline to $6,527,915 killing its chances at breaking out. The Watch fell 66% in its third frame to $2,221,451 and promptly lost most of its theater count. The domestic run closed with $35,353,000.
FOX put the film out overseas to a poor $32.9 million, with a soft $6 million from the UK as the strongest market. The worldwide total was $68.2 million and FOX would see returned about $37.5 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross — which would not cover P&A expenses and the theatrical receipts would leave the budget in the red.