'Watchmen' Breaking Records Before Its Release

March 5, 6:53 PMNY Movies ExaminerJessica Almon

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Set to debut tomorrow, the Zack Snyder-helmed superhero flick will be showing in the most theaters for any R-rated film ever: a whopping 3,611 screens nationwide.

In a way, this isn't surprising, considering Snyder's previous film, 300 earned a remarkable $28 million in its first day of sales, the second-highest first day gross after The Matrix: Reloaded. Moreover, the demand for broad, stylized, action films has always been near-universal, as illustrated most recently by the tremendous successes of movies like The Dark Knight and Iron Man.

The Watchmen also plans to play on 124 Imax screens. "All will have midnight shows, and that's a function of demand," Imax Filmed Entertainment president Greg Foster said. "If there weren't midnight shows, there would be a riot. The demand is very, very strong." Foster also reported that Imax's website crashed four times this week because of overwhelming traffic from Watchmen fans, chomping at the bit for advanced ticket information. Fandango echoed this issue, attributing 90% of its advance ticket sales for this weekend to Watchmen.