Surprise! Spartans Assault Box Office
Even a film business that expects big numbers is likely to be double-checking the box-office receipts for Warner Brothers’ “300” on Monday and asking, “What just happened?”
The sword-and-sandals epic posted an estimated $70 million in ticket sales Friday through Sunday as it surged past hostile critics and industry expectations to become the fourth surprise hit in a winter season that began with a limp.
“We had projected it coming in around the mid-30s,” said Dan Fellman, Warner’s president of theatrical distribution, referring to the $30 million mark. “It’s staggering.”
The movie defied the odds in that it had no star bigger than the Scottish actor Gerard Butler (“The Phantom of the Opera”), Mr. Fellman said, it was made by the relatively untested director Zack Snyder (“Dawn of the Dead”) and it carried the added handicap of an R rating.
The opening of “300” was the third largest for an R-rated film, behind “The Matrix Reloaded,” which posted about $91.8 million in ticket sales on its first weekend in 2003, and “The Passion of the Christ,” which opened to about $84 million a year later.
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The sword-and-sandals epic posted an estimated $70 million in ticket sales Friday through Sunday as it surged past hostile critics and industry expectations to become the fourth surprise hit in a winter season that began with a limp.
“We had projected it coming in around the mid-30s,” said Dan Fellman, Warner’s president of theatrical distribution, referring to the $30 million mark. “It’s staggering.”
The movie defied the odds in that it had no star bigger than the Scottish actor Gerard Butler (“The Phantom of the Opera”), Mr. Fellman said, it was made by the relatively untested director Zack Snyder (“Dawn of the Dead”) and it carried the added handicap of an R rating.
The opening of “300” was the third largest for an R-rated film, behind “The Matrix Reloaded,” which posted about $91.8 million in ticket sales on its first weekend in 2003, and “The Passion of the Christ,” which opened to about $84 million a year later.