Gerard Butler as Leonidas in Warner Bros. Pictures' 300
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Sparta! Let’s break records!

300 soldiers may have shocked the Persian Empire in 480 BC but even while long dead, they still find ways to make fools of us all. In a stunning weekend debut, Frank Miller's graphic novel about the Battle of Thermopylae has shocked box office analysis’s expectations around the world bringing home an estimated 70.0 mil in money. Final numbers will be confirmed Monday afternoon when it’s all said and done but for now, that estimation has given 300 a few box office records to etch into their gore soaked armor. The film is now the top March Opener of all time moving Ice Age: The Meltdown to 2^nd place in that particular record book. 300 is now the 3^rd highest Rated-R film opener of all time as well coming behind Matrix Reloaded (91.7 mil) & Passion of the Christ (83.8 mil). It also has to have one of the top Averages per Screen numbers of all time if you include that $22,566 take this weekend which is absolutely astounding to look at. 

I usually set this place to give you reasons why the top grosser won the weekend but in this case, I think we all knew it was going to win it here. We’ve all seen the great reviews out there and we knew how highly anticipated it was. We just didn’t see this kind of opening numbers. None of the experts did. Most tracking had it set between 35-42 mil which is very decent for a Rated R film in that amount of screens (3,103). None of us foresaw it kicking ass in the manner that it has. Warner Bros executives are smiling right about now while the rest of the world is preparing best arm spots for upcoming water-cooler discussions. 

Coming in 2^nd place this weekend is Disney’s Wild Hogs. It should be noted that this film has also done highly successful numbers in its first two weeks. Last weekend, it brought in 39 mil making it the 3^rd highest March opener of all time (now moving down to 4^th place). This weekend it brought in another estimated 28.0 mil bringing its two week total to 77.4 mil. That’s definitely a good beginning for Disney and for middle aged men looking to wear leather and ride their bikes. America seems to love you and the idea of it. 

3^rd place is where we see a lot of distance from the top 2 spots. Bridge to Terabithia pulled in a distant 6.8 mil this weekend but then again their distributor isn’t too sad at the moment knowing they have Wild Hogs doing so well for them. Bridge has made 67.0 mil in 4 weeks for the studio and is now starting its wide foreign release.  

Ghost Rider continued riding in 4^th place this weekend cashing in another 6.8 mil. The cursed soul on hellish wheels has now topped the 100.0 mil watermark bringing in a total of 104.1 domestically. It’s also brought in another 61.6 overseas making its worldwide total around the 165.7 mil mark.  

I’m shocked that we’re going to be talking about Zodiac coming in 5^th place in its second weekend of release. A lot of people figured the tale of the killer would chop into some of 300’s adult audience and it has garnered decent reviews around the country. Dropping from 2^nd place (last weekend) to 5^th place was unexpected. It took in an estimated 6.7 mil and now has cashed 23.7 mil in total receipts. 

Jim Carrey’s thriller Number 23 lands behind the zodiac killer in 6^th place taking in another 4.3 mil bringing its total to 30.4 mil. It has a production budget of 30 mil so now it’s reached that mark in 3 weeks of release. I wouldn’t expect it to bring home much more then that when all said and done here. It’s probably going to continue making 3 or 4 mil each weekend for just a few more weeks before disappearing off the weekend chart. 

The comedy Norbit starring Eddie Murphy laughs up 7^th place this weekend so it continues with its staying power. The movie brought in another 4.3 mil as well and now has a domestic total of 88.3 mil. Like Number 23, it seems to have legs to make it a few more weeks before falling out of first run theaters but nothing more to discuss on it.  

Music and Lyrics (8^th place), Breach (9^th place), & Amazing Grace (10^th place) rounds up our final 3 spots for the weekend none of these three movies made more then 4 mil each. The only thing which should be mentioned is Music and Lyrics is now at a domestic take of 43.8 mil which is impressive for a romantic comedy in this box office atmosphere as of late…Also, Amazing Grace is a film distributed by an Independent studio, was only released on 800 screens(now pushed to 1,000 screens) and has been surprised me by just staying in the top 10 spots the last two weeks.  
 

If the past few weeks can be used as an early indicator into the future of this years box office receipts, then I can summarize the next few months as being positive for distribution studios. Last week, Wild Hogs had the 4th highest March Opener of All Time (bringing in 39.6 mil on its debut weekend). The last March comedy to do this kind of numbers was in fact the previous #1 March Opener of All Time which came out on 03/31/06. That would be Ice Age: The Meltdown. The Fox animation took in an incredible 68.0 mil, a total which would make some summer movies blush (but not Spartans). Who owns the 3^rd place of All Time March openers now? The original Ice Age of course! The first film grossed an opening 46.3 mil on 03/15/02.  

There’s a 4 year gap between the 2nd place and 3rd place all time March openers and yet now we have back to back weekends here in March 07 with eye popping numbers. That has to be either an early indicator for a successful year or coincidental fluke. I’m going for the successful year odds myself. What do you think? 

I’m not saying that March is all that bad in normal terms for studios. Some pretty successful films have come out in the past and it seems that every year, we have a big one pull in an early jumpstart to the coming high octane summer season around this time. The top 10 March openers all have made at least 30.0 mil dollars. In other words, March box office data is nothing near as ridiculous as January & February numbers. It seems to be a going trend for studios to make each summer season begin earlier and earlier. It used to be Memorial Day weekend and it’s gradually moved up until now we’re expecting to see what we all consider a “summer” movie sometime in late April. We usually see some of these big name & highly advertised movies make at least one jump appearance in March to show the analysis experts what trends to expect. 

In this case, we have 300.  

Zach Snyder’s adaptation on the graphic novel of the Thermopylae battle between Spartans and Persians has been highly advertised and even more highly anticipated. The questions we all had for it was how successful it will be. The clear and concise reasoning behind our questions was simple to understand. We took into account that this film had things going against it: 

• Rated-R having incredible amounts of violence
• 1 hour & 57 minutes long
• Opening up on 3,000 screens
• Remember Sin City?
• Opening in March

The film had all this going against Warner Brothers, Snyder & Miller. It bucked all odds reminiscent of the actual story 300 and seems as if they really did have the last laugh over our doubts. No, I’m not saying we said the movie was going to be terrible. However, most of us did severely underestimate the box office success of the film though. I said myself it would “barely” break one hundred mil and end up around 117 mil by the end of April. I’m looking at my prediction after the fact and trying not to laugh. Don’t kick yourselves too hard about it because it seems this film had most experts caught with their mental pants down. There can be no doubt for me; it’s probably going to be at my B.O mark come the end of March. Also, there isn’t what you would consider great competition for it next week. Perhaps, it may drop out of the 1^st place by weekend 3 comes around on the when TMNT comes out but even that’s in doubt. It may even rule the box office top spot for 3 weeks straight beating out the turtles, something not done since A Night at the Museum earlier this year.  There can be no doubt about it, 300 hit it big. They may be “dining in hell” but they’re also chowing down with style after this weekend’s shocking success. 

I’ll give you Maniacs two charts to look at this week. The first one will be the top 10 March Openers of All time as a reference to where 300 stands. The second one will be the top 10 Rated R Openers as another reference. 

                                               Top 10 March Openers of All Time

                                                Top Rated-R Openers of All Time

There are some reference points for you in regards to the successful weekend of 300.  
 
 

I won’t insert a Maniac Feedback section this week because frankly, we all failed on our predictions for this movie. We don’t deserve it. Only maniac Daforce got anywhere close to the mark so I’ll just put his quote up from last week’s column... 

Daforce: “I'm going to say at least a $50 million opening weekend. Yes, I know that that's probably a new record, but the style of the film is different and as groundbreaking as the Matrix was for its day.  

Look for movies in the future to start copying 300's style in the years to come.” 

There you have it, Maniacs. Our closest prediction goes to him and he also mentioned breaking a record in which it has. 

March 16, 2007 Releases: 

Wide Releases

• Dead Silence (1,800+ screens)
• I Think I Love My Wife (1,800 screens)
• Premonition (2,700 screens)

Limited Releases

• Adam’s Apples
• Beauty and the Beast: A Latter-Day Tale
• Nomad (The Warrior)
• The Wind That Shakes the Barley

                                  Maniac Box Office Archive Page.  Talk to you later, Maniacs!