“The average fan won’t likely admit it, but they wanted more Fantastic Four and less of a thinker’s film. They wanted something they knew.”
[A Lesson Learned: Fans Want Familiarity by Adam Sweeney, Film School Rejects]
Adam Sweeney of the site Film School Rejects has a great opinion piece on why Watchmen wasn’t widely embraced by mainstream audiences. While people like me who are familiar with the source material were satisfied with the film, many people saw the marketing as just another superhero movie. Therefore many people were let down by Watchmen based on their expectations. Watchmen is a thinking person’s Superhero Movie and I’m not suprised by the mainstream audience reactions.
