Trivia / The Watch (2012)

• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $68 million. Box office, $68,267,862. It didn't help that that the film was released around the start of the 2012 Summer Olympics and a week after The Dark Knight Rises. In the case of the latter, a survey from researcher NRG revealed that 20-25 percent of moviegoers have shown reluctance visit movie theaters following the subsequent mass shooting at a midnight screening of the aforementioned movie in Aurora, Colorado.
• Creator Backlash: Richard Ayoade seemed especially sarcastic towards it during the promotional circuit.
• Distanced from Current Events: The movie, whose original title was Neighborhood Watch, had its marketing pulled from movie theaters in the wake of the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by a neighborhood watch person in Sanford, Florida. The film was subsequently renamed The Watch, with the marketing revamped to focus more on the alien aspect than the neighborhood watch. It didn't help that one trailer showed Jonah Hill's character pretending to shoot a child.
• Executive Meddling: The title being changed and the marketing being shifted to focus on the aliens, spoiling what was meant to be a surprise plot point.
• Real-Life Relative: In the Canadian French dub, Evan is voiced by Alain Zouvi. The latter's son, Frédéric Millaire-Zouvi, is the voice of Jamarcus.
• What Could Have Been:
  • David Dobkin was originally going to direct with Will Ferrell in the leading role, but the duo fell out in summer 2009.
  • Chris Tucker was considered for the role of Jamarcus.
  • Bradley Cooper was attached to a role.

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