300 Plunders Every Cineplex In The Land To Take The Top Spot
Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo:
Finding box office glory beyond all expectations, 300 raked in an estimated $70 million, shattering the March opening record... >
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Ian Mohr of Variety:
Warner Bros.' bloody, f/x-heavy battle pic "300" made an outright assault on the B.O. over the weekend, mopping up just over $70 million and bludgeoning any negative reviews in its path.
Playing in more than 3,100 theaters, pic was the third biggest R-rated opener ever -- behind "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Passion of the Christ" -- and the biggest R-rated opener in March.
Helmer Zack Snyder and graphic novelist Frank Miller's muscle-bound vision of the ancient Battle of Thermopylae easily decapitated any competish for the No. 1 spot, but B.O. as a whole was robust.
Disney's "Wild Hogs," last weekend's No. 1, held solidly, dipping just 29% to shift $28 million in its second frame and land at No. 2; cume is $77.4 million.
The Mouse House's PG-rated "Bridge to Terabithia" flew into the third spot, dropping a scant 23%; cume after a month in release is $67 million.
Sony's "Ghost Rider," meanwhile, became the first pic released this year to motor past $100 million.
Led by "300," overall B.O. spiked. The top 10 films combined for more than $136 million vs. the $88.8 million they mustered a year ago over the same frame, when "Failure to Launch" debuted as a No. 1 with $24.4 million.
War pic "300" becomes just the latest film to be largely skewered by critics but perform well at the B.O.
It scored a per-theater average of $22,567, and drew its eye-popping haul by playing to strong biz across the country, according to Warner Bros. domestic distribution topper Dan Fellman.
As the frame's only new wide rollout, "300" smashed expectations; it had been pegged to hit about $40 million, according to its tracking data.
Fellman said the demos for "300" were equally split between men and women -- surprising, given the project's high violence and machismo -- and he pointed to the pic's Internet-heavy marketing campaign as a major part of its success. Warners had pushed the pic's trailer on MySpace and other youth-skewing sites.
Reflecting its popularity across many markets, "300" played to a per-theater average of $16,500 in Salt Lake City, which Fellman called "home of the PG." Pic hit $28,000 per engagement in Los Angeles and nailed averages of over $24,000 per theater in Las Vegas, Chicago, New York and San Francisco.
Fellman compared the movie's success to that of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," the 2002 left-field romantic comedy hit that racked up more than $241 million. Pic was another original concept that managed to build a major fanbase though not part of a franchise, a la "Matrix Reloaded"; nor did it attract auds outside the typical moviegoing demo like "The Passion."
Pic also played particularly well on Imax screens, drawing a $54,500 per-screen average off 62 runs. Imax chairman-[president] Greg Foster said "300" played into a campaign aimed at the young fanboy crowd.
"We've been cultivating the techie crowd of 15- to 24-year-olds who play videogames and watch DVDs," Foster said. "It's a (demographic) that's difficult to get (to theaters), but we finally nailed them."
Mark Canton, who produced "300" with Gianni Nunnari, Jeff Silver and Bernie Goldmann, ascribed a large part of the movie's success to Warners' decision to roll it out during spring break. "That has now become a long window," he said. Warner Bros. "took March and made it into summer."
Warners wouldn't say if there are any plans to turn "300" -- a pic shot entirely in a warehouse in Montreal for about $60 million -- into a franchise. ("I don't know if there's a '301,' " Fellman said. "Maybe there's a '299.' "
Biggest ever R-rated opener in March had been "Scream 3," which grabbed a $34.7 million slice in 2000. Miller's previous pic, "Sin City," holds the record for April's biggest R-rated opening at $29.1 million...
There's plenty more analysis from the big V here
Joshua Rich of Entertainment Weekly, writes in his weekend wrap-up
The graphic-novel adaptation has a stunning debut, breaking all-time records for March and tracking on par with other huge hits
Wow! $70 Million is a lot of ca-ching,,,In March no less! This certainly bodes well for every other film project with Miller's name attached--at least in the foreseeable future anyway.
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