Spartans beat Persians, clean up on ticket sales

Spartans beat Persians, clean up on ticket sales


The Gazette(Montreal)


by DAVID GERMAIN, AP

Published: Monday, March 12, 2007

The ancient battle of Thermopylae was the stuff of 2007's first certified blockbuster as the bloody action tale 300 debuted with ticket sales of $70 million in its opening weekend, according to studio estimates yesterday.

That's about $233,000 for every one of the legendary 300 Spartan soldiers who fought off a much larger Persian force in the epic battle.

"On a Spartan-by-Spartan basis, that's a lot of money," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers.


The number of movie-goers for the Warner Bros. epic outnumbered crowds for the rest of the top-10 movies combined.

Adapted from Frank Miller's graphic novel, 300 stars Gerard Butler as Leonidas, king of the Greek city-state of Sparta, who leads his vastly outnumbered men against the Persian invaders.

Directed by Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead), 300 presents the actors against digitally created backgrounds to re-create the look of Miller's graphic novel, a technique similar to that used on the movie adaptation of Miller's Sin City.

Heavy on violence, the movie had an R rating, normally a damper on a film's blockbuster potential. But "300" wound up with the third-best debut ever for an R-rated movie, behind "The Matrix Reloaded" at $91.8 million and "The Passion of the Christ" at $83.8 million.

300 bumped off the previous weekend's No. 1 movie, Disney's Wild Hogs, which slipped to second place but held up well with $28 million, raising its total to $77.4 million.

In limited release, Fox Searchlight's immigrant drama The Namesake opened strongly with $250,762 in six theatres, averaging $41,794. Centred on an Indian family's assimilation in America, The Namesake expands to more theatres Friday.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theatres, according to Media By Numbers LLC:

1. 300, $70 million.

2. Wild Hogs, $28 million.

3. Bridge to Terabithia, $6.9 million.

4. Ghost Rider, $6.8 million.

5. Zodiac, $6.77 million.

6. The Number 23, $4.33 million.

7. Norbit, $4.3 million.

8. Music and Lyrics, $3.8 million.

9. Breach, $2.6 million.

10. Amazing Grace, $2.5 million.




© The Gazette (Montreal) 2007