Variety is reporting Watchmen doubled the current March box-office record holder, 300, in terms of midnight box-office dollars by taking in $4.6 million in Thursday midnight runs.
The film played more than 1,595 midnight run across the country with all of the 124 IMAX midnight runs sold out to the point IMAX added 3 a.m. shows and says much of the weekend is already sold out.
The film opens in a total 3,611 theaters starting today, the widest theater count ever for an R-rated film.
Box-office predictions have been across the board with folks like Steve Mason predicting $63 million and our very own Laremy Legel topping the online collective with an aggressive $88.5 million. Based on nothing but sheer intuition I am looking for it to hit around $77 million, but the main goal Warner is hoping to reach is topping 300‘s record holding march number of $70.9 million since I am sure most will agree the $91.7 million made by Matrix Reloaded, the opening weekend record for an R-rated film, is not in much jeopardy.
