Watchmen Succeeds on Thursday

Watchmen is off to a quick start. The film, which saw its release this Friday, has already pulled in $4.6 million from the midnight showing that took place Thursday night and early Friday morning.

According to Variety, it played at midnight in more than 1,595 theaters and grossed more than double Snyder's previous film, 300's midnight showing's take. This gross included all 124 of the IMAX showings, which were all sold out. This prompted many of the theaters to add a 3 a.m. showing.

While the film was largely considered to be unfilmable, it is hard to deny that it will be successful. Variety adds that as of midnight, early Saturday morning, 92 percent of online movie ticket vendors' total tickets sold are for Watchmen, indicating this could be a big weekend for the film. The film is opening in 3,611, the widest opening ever for an R-rated film.

This is director Zack Snyder's third film. Previous entries include, horror zombie film Dawn of the Dead and 300. Both of those films were huge successes; 300 made an unexpected $70.9 million in its opening weekend while Dawn of the Dead made more than double its production budget in its domestic gross.

Watchmen is the biggest release of the year so far.