Watchmen Lawsuit Pt. 15: Angry Fans Equals Damages

Evidence of fan anger about the Watchmen legal case is pretty easy to find on the Internet. Some are even suggesting a boycott against Fox for filing the Watchmen lawsuit. Certainly no film studio files such a big lawsuit without awareness of the reaction of their potential audience. Fox is no exception. Alexander Young of Twentieth Century Fox was deposed in November 2008 by Warner Brother about Fox's request for an injunction to stop Watchmen from being released. In explaining how Fox might be harmed by allowing the project to go forward, Young made a point of mentioning the fan base. He started out on a positive note:

The Watchmen is one of a unique brand of properties in these comic book franchises that come with a fan base that is passionate and shows up and follows not just the property, but then has benefits to all of the other movies we make.

He then provided the following observation:

And so not only have we lost an opportunity, a fantastic opportunity to appeal to that fan base and show them that we are a company that does these kind of movies and does them exceptionally well, but as a result of this action, we've also potentially alienated a section of this fan base that now looks at us as philistines for enforcing our rights.