‘Watchmen’ staggers in second week, 67% drop in box office

The film’s opening success contrasted with the narrower audiences for the R-rated ‘Watchmen,’ a dark story involving flawed and troubled superheroes, and ‘Last House on the Left,’ also R-rated, a remake of a brutally violent 1972 horror movie. According to preliminary figures released today by the studios, ‘Watchmen,’ a Warner Bros. picture, took in $18.1 million in its second week in release, bringing its total to $86 million, according to movie data tracker Media by Numbers. ‘Last House,’ from Universal, grossed $14.7 million in its first weekend. Fox’s ‘Taken’ was fourth, selling $6.7 million in tickets to raise its total gross to $126.8 million over seven weeks. Tyler Perry’s ‘Madea Goes to Jail,’ from Lionsgate, followed in fifth at $5.1 million.Trailing them were Fox Searchlight’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ at $5 million, and Sony/Columbia’s ‘Paul Blart: Mall Cop’ at $3.1 million. ‘Slumdog,’ with a total domestic gross of $132.6 million, and ‘Paul Blart,’ with a total of $137.7 million, are part of this year’s spate of long-running hits.Warner had hoped to join that trend with ‘Watchmen,’ directed by Zach Snyder, whose ‘300’ took in $71 million on its opening weekend two years ago and went on to gross more than $210 million in domestic release. But ‘Watchmen’s’ chances for a similar success ebbed as its take in the second weekend dropped 67% from the first weekend, despite its second-place finish.Still, the film ‘held better than many had expected with strong midweek grosses,’ noted Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media by Numbers. The movie took in $3.9 million Monday, $3.4 million Tuesday and $3.9 million Wednesday, Dergarabedian said.