It wasn’t a Merry Christmas at Warner Brothers when a federal judge in Los Angeles declared Fox owns an interest in the copyright rights for The Watchmen. In the rulings words, “Fox owns a copyright interest consisting of, at the very least, the right to distribute the Watchmen motion picture.”
Fox has been battling in court over the past several months to halt the wrapped film’s upcoming March release by Warner Brothers. Fox claims they still hold rights to the film after failing to get it made a decade ago.
Warner has already invested money in advertising for the Watchmen, not to mention the huge production investment by Warner and Legendary Pictures. The hype machine is already ramped up with a potential blockbuster at risk, so pushing back the film would be ill-advised for both studios.
The best resolution at this point is if Warner and Fox settle and either Fox distributes the film with Warner receiving a percentage of the gross or the other way around. Given Fox’s persistence in fighting this case, the likelihood of them relinquishing distribution rights granted by the judge are slim to none.
For now, all we can do is sit back and wait for the suits to hopefully hammer out some kind of resolution before March. Too much money is at stake, already spent and potential box office sales, to not make a valiant effort to come to some sort of financial agreement. Otherwise, The Watchmen are going to have to sit on the sideline for the time being.
