10 Movies Everybody Wanted (But Nobody Watched)

An adaptation of Alan Moore's legendary comic book series Watchman had been in the works for roughly 20 years before the Zack Snyder version finally stuck and actually got made.

One of the most iconic and acclaimed comics of all time, a Watchmen movie seemed like an absolute slam dunk on paper, yet the complexity and ambition of the material also made studio executives wary.

But Warner Bros. nevertheless gave Snyder $138 million to make an R-rated, 163-minute adaptation of Moore's novel, and one which stirred up much excitement when its first trailer was put in front of The Dark Knight in the summer of 2008.

Reviews ultimately skewed mixed-positive, but in an era where R-rated superhero movies had yet to find their place with audiences, Watchmen's pre-release hype failed to translate into commercial success.

Watchmen was an atrocious box office failure, grossing just $185.3 million worldwide, with analysts citing both its long runtime and grim tone as turning mainstream audiences off.

It did, however, perform phenomenally well on home video, enough that it's estimated to have actually turned a modest profit. Even so, that a film whose original trailer stirred up so much buzz online tanked so hard when it mattered most was genuinely dispiriting.

Watchmen is generally accepted to be one of Snyder's better films today, and it's easy to see how its more challenging content probably would've gone down better with today's more enlightened, comic-literate audiences.

As such, it's little surprise that HBO's recent Watchmen series - a fair improvement over Snyder's film, admittedly - was both a massive critical and ratings hit.