Gerard Butler as Leonidas in Warner Bros. Pictures' 300
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Prepare for Box Office Glory!

Just one memorable quote from Gerard Butler’s character is of course “Give them nothing! But take from them everything!”. It seems that 300 continue to enact that motto all way to the bank for Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures. The loosely based periodic epic adapted from Frank Miller’s imagination assaulted competition last weekend in its opening debut pulling in a record breaking 70.8 mil. During the week, it continued rolling to victory each & every day while this weekend’s success has it inching ever closer to the upper echelons of Box Office Glory. The film which has had genre fan boys drooling in anticipation for so long continued to etch victory marks in their shields by pulling another 31.1 mil this weekend. The adaptation was added into 167 more screens and ruled over everyone else in 1^st place with an average of $9,536 per screen.  

Coming up in 2^nd place is the comedy Wild Hogs which has performed unbelievable over the past few weeks. It’s playing very well in theaters pulling in another 18.8 mil this weekend and a total of 103.9 mil overall. The Disney comedy is this months go to comedy for the movie going masses and has had legs to stand on ranking the amount of money it has.  

Opening in 3^rd place in its debut weekend is Premonition with 18.0 mil. Sony’s drama/thriller opened up in 2,831 screens and had a decent average of $6,358 per screen. I’m finding myself hard to explain why the film opened in the top 3. I guess I’m just surprised because I’ve hardly heard any advertising for it and it beat out the other debuts this weekend which I have heard more about. It should be said it’s production budget is listed 20 mil so it’s nearly made its money back in 3 days flat. 

Landing in 4^th place was another opener, the horror film Dead Silence. The doll based horror film pulled in a distant 7.7 mil (showing the gap between the top 3 film’s money and 4^th-10^th places). Not many horror films out there right now with an amount of supernatural so I’m not surprised this one is ranked in the top 5. The Universal horror films budget is listed at 20 mil also.  

Following behind in 5^th place is the Chris Rock romantic comedy I Think I Love My Wife which pulled in 5.7 mil in its first weekend. This film rounded up the 3 opening films this weekend in the 5^th spot in 1,776 screens.  

The 6^th-10^th place films all performed under expectations in the box office mainly because the top 5 took most of the box office receipts in cashflow. They all had very low averages per screen. Bridge to Terabithia grabbed another 5.1 mil bringing its total to 74.9 mil while being pulled out of 119 screens over the weekend.  

The other comic adaptation Ghost Rider pulled in another 4.0 mil in 7^th place this weekend while being pulled out of 523 screens. This film dropped 40 % over the previous weekend and has pretty much earned its box office theater run here in the states. It’s now ready to start going into second run theaters and prepare to leave them altogether. Its main theater run is now ending. Rider has a production budget of 110 mil and its total domestic take is at 110.2 mil, its worldwide take at 185.3 mil.  

The highly praised thriller Zodiac lands in 8^th place pulling in another 3 mil this weekend bringing its total to 28.9 mil overall. The Paramount distributed thriller dropped 53.7 % from the last weekend’s totals in the 2,326 screens it was playing on. 

Rounding out this weekend’s box office report in 9^th and 10^th places is the comedy Norbit and romantic comedy Music and Lyrics. Neither one of these movies pulled in more then 2.7 mil and had low averages per screen most likely due to the overwhelming competition, amount of weeks of release & being pulled out of perspective screens. Norbit took in 2.7 mil bringing its total to 92.3 mil here in the states and Music took in 2.2 mil making its total mark 47.3 mil.  
 
 
 
 

I can’t even go back a few weeks to our 300 estimates with a straight face. Our predictions for the Zack Snyder film should be placed under a Comedy genre for the misses on our part. Hell, seventy five percent of the analysis I’ve seen on the internet as a whole are back-stepping over their own fouled predictions for this monstrous hit. There’s nothing that can be said other then “I was so wrong.” Take that apology as you will. 

I said it would hit the 100 million mark barely and would end up around 117 million by the end of April. Here’s what I wrote:

“Miller’s latest film will most likely break 100 million watermark in box office receipts but it will it will get there by just a hair on Kevin Smith’s chin. I’ve been holding back on my decision based on the fact that we don’t know how many theater screens it’s going to debut on.” --March 4th Box Office Report

Well, this week made a fool of me and I’ll happily admit it. Let me give you the weekly breakdown for this film. 

300 Daily Box Office Totals: 

Friday 3/9: 28.1 mil

Saturday 3/10: 24.6 mil

Sunday 3/11: 18.0 mil

Monday 3/12: 7.6 mil

Tuesday 3/13: 6.5 mil

Wednesday 3/14: 5.8 mil

Thursday 3/15: 5.4 mil

Friday 3/16:  

Yes, that’s right. By the 7 day mark…By Friday afternoon, 300 hit the 100.0 mil mark.  

I think when talking about this failure of analysis on my part, the obvious mistake which is hard to quantify is the effect that Spring Break did for this film. That’s the only factor which I can see as contributing so much to this success. The problem was comparing Sin City (another Frank Miller adaptation) to 300 beforehand. We had very good reason to act on this hypothesis. Both films are Rated R, have extreme violence, and come out nearly at the same times. Sin City opened up in 3,230 screens and made 29.1 mil. 300 opened up on 3,103 screens and took in 70.8 mil. Big difference! So how come Sin City came up average and 300 performed so well?  

The only factor that is overwhelming everything else is of course the Spring Break audience. The 18-26 mini-demographic that would eat up a violent periodic testosterone driven film like 300 like a fat kid in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.  Nearly every college in the country had their spring breaks the past two weeks and as such, that’s a big audience to cater towards from the studios. Sin City could have taken into this audience but something tells me they were two weeks too late with their release. Sin City opted to open up on April 1^st, 2005 which I believe is after what most 20-somethings consider to be Spring Break. It seems that 300, Legendary Pictures & Warner Bros were rewarded for opening the film in the middle of march compared to late March or early April.  

This leads into more questions. Would 300 have done so well released at another date? Would a 70.8 mil opening & 100.0 mil seven day run have occurred on a Rated R film in early April? I say no. Would 300 have done this well even in early May? I still say no. This means Warner Bros. and Snyder made a very wise move in releasing it when they did. They took advantage of a wide mini-demographic often forgotten, good timing, and lack of competition. The other film making a killing at the box office right now is Wild Hogs (a comedy appealing to an utterly different demographic). Wild Hogs seems to cater to a certain audience wanting one thing. 300 cater to the exact opposite audience. Both movies are performing excellent because they work so well off of each other.  

Next week could be another story for our current box office reigning champion. I’m saying this not because I think next week’s releases will be better then 300 or Wild Hogs but because of the “choices” they entail for these two successes. There are 6 new wide releases next weekend. TMNT & The Last Mimzy are opening in 3,000+ screens each. The Hills Have Eyes II & Shooter are opening in 2,500+ screens each. Pride & Reign Over Me are opening in 1,600+ screens each. As I say, Maniacs, I don’t have a crystal ball so I can’t say if these films beat 300 for next weekend but one thing is for sure, they will take into the perspective demographics of 300’s audience. They will also flood the market with more options for moviegoers.  

As such, I say Kudos to Warner Bros & Legendary Pictures of 300 for opening their film in such a smart fashion. Kudos to them for the great timing and kicking Box Office Ass for a good two weeks before competition comes into play. Of course, a big Kudos in proving all of our predictions to be so wrong. They are to be commended for making such wise moves.  
 

Maniac Feedback: 

Snallygaster: “That's a staggering box office. 300 almost did in one weekend what Sin City did during its full theatrical run. Bravo to Snyder, Miller, and Warner Brothers! I'm guessing that on Monday morning, studio chiefs around Hollywood will begin greenlighting more highly literal interpretations of graphic novels and comic book properties. I just wonder what sort of dropoff it will experience over the next two weekends - being a heavily marketed fanboy movie, the box office may be heavily front-loaded.  
 
I saw 300 this weekend, and while I wouldn't say it's perfect as the posters above indicated, it truly is a terrific movie. With 300 following on the heals of Zodiac, 2007 is already shaping up to be a better year in movies than last year.” 

Raulendymion: “After reading news and posts about 300 for the last 6 months it was obvious that we fans of this type of movie really wanted it to be a success. So I think snally points out what many of us were thinking: if 300 does well it insures that more graphic novel/comic book movies will be made. I remember being quite PO that Titan A.E. did so poorly at the BO as it was a good movie yet I knew it was the last of its kind so to speak (animated, geared toward semi-adult). I for one have been quite euphoric since the first Spider Man came out and did huge business. The bar is set high and as long as Hollywood continues to stay on its game and the fans continue to flock these movies will keep coming. $70 mil in 3 days for a movie that cost $65 mil, not bad...... 

Monkeyfoot: “I always characterize genre type entertainment by the term "Bigger Than Life" or BTL. Anything from fantasy , horror, Sci-Fi, action adventure. 300 is literally BTL! Done on a mythic scale. A friend said it was similar to DeMille's Ten Commandants. The real events didn't happen with the granduer portrayed in that movie, but are amplified to stand for greater things. Leonidas as played by Gerard Butler is the iconic hero we would all like to be-a Captain America or Superman. Every battle sequence is like comic book fight come to life (They brought to mind pages from the Mighty Thor drawn by Jack Kirby in the '60's). To temper the grandness., Lena Headey performance as the queen was the most human part of the film and it was a pleasure to connect with her and events on a normal level. 
 
The film isn't perfect. I can see some not being able to connect emotionally with the events because of the surreal setting. But this is meant to be a visual presentation of the story told to an enraptured audience by campfire to children whose minds will forever swim with the BTL images they've created. I'm very happy for its big success. 
 
As a side note to those familiar with Stargate the movie and TV series, King Xerxes is the greatest Goau’ld there was.” 
 
 
 

Friday March 23, 2007 Releases: 

Wide Releases

• TMNT (3,000+ screens)
• The Last Mimzy (3,000+ screens)
• The Hills Have Eyes II (2,500+ screens)
• Shooter (2,600+ screens)
• Pride (1,600+ screens)
• Reign Over Me (1,600+ screens)

Limited Releases

• Air Guitar Nation
• Color Me Kubrick
• First Snow
• Memory
• Offside

Visit our Box Office Report Archive listing. If you make a comment on an old Box Office report, Bang It for everyone to see it. Talk to you later, Maniacs!