There's a meat-head side of us and a more intelligent side of us. The meat-head side is easiest (for most) to connect to, but when something truly amazing comes along, like "The Dark Knight," we'll sure as hell connect. What's more, we'll want to connect again and again. That Warner Brothers is producing the film makes me feel very confident that Zack Snyder got a chance to make a great film that is faithful to the novel, just the way it should be.

First, let's look at its opening weekend gross. It'll be big. $530-million-worth of people went to see TDK in theaters this year, and every single one of them saw a trailer for "Watchmen." I know they also saw a trailer for "Body of Lies," which didn't help its box office at all, but I must point out that "Watchmen" was THE trailer that everyone was talking about. People are really looking forward to it. So… butts will be in the seats on March 6. Low end estimate gives it a $50 million opening; high end, $85 million. But I'm expecting $70 million, like "300."

The following weeks? If the film is faithful to the graphic novel, and if it's TRULY good, people will come back, even if it wasn't the meat-headedness they were looking for. How many people walked into TDK on July 18th looking for intelligent entertainment? Not a lot of people, I'll bet. But that's the reason why they returned. It was intelligent and emotionally engaging (come to the think of it, the latter might be the larger reason). I expect "Watchmen" to be the same. Similar to "300," it'll probably have a 3X multiplier for its final box office tally, taking in about $210 domestically. Worldwide, however, I don't expect it to be as big.

I also want to take issue with the idea that girls won't like it as much. I know quite a lot of girls who are totally looking forward to this movie. One is like: "I'm going to get my dad to see it by telling him that it's an action movie based off a graphic novel, and I'm going to get my mom to see it by telling her it has Billy Crudup." College people are very aware of this film, and with its R-rating, that's the audience that'll bring in the greatest box office receipts.

In anything other than box office numbers, however, it's unfair to compare "300" to "Watchmen." Their links are: 1) same director 2) same production company (Warner Bros.) 3) same medium for the original source (graphic novel). But the same could be said about "A Clockwork Orange" and "Eyes Wide Shut"–they both were directed by Kubrick, both being produced by Warner Bros., and both were based off a novel. And yet nobody was calling EWS "The Next Clockwork Orange?" No, they didn't, and it most certainly wasn't. It was totally awesome in a way entirely different from ACO's awesomeness. The same will be true for "Watchmen" and "300."