The battle over Watchmen is over. With a settlement to end the legal battle finally agreed upon, the movie will now make its March 6 opening day, Variety reports. "Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox have resolved their dispute regarding the rights to the upcoming motion picture Watchmen in a confidential settlement," said a joint release. "Warner Bros. acknowledges that Fox acted in good faith in bringing its claims, which were asserted prior to the start of principal photography. Fox acknowledges that Warner Brothers acted in good faith in defending against those claims. Warner Bros. and Fox, like all Watchmen fans, look forward with great anticipation to this film's March 6 release in theatres."
Warner will still distribute the movie while Fox will enjoy somewhere between 5% and 8.5% of the gross profits. Fox also walks away with a cash payment between $5 million and $10 million, which will cover the $1.4 million they had put into the development of Watchmen, and cover their legal fees as well.
That's not a bad start to 2009 for Fox, which had two of the biggest box-office bombs of 2008 with Meet Dave and Australia.
Posted 01.16.09 by Ryan