Word of mouth feeds record debut for '300'

By Josh Friedman

March 12, 2007 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

In the battle at Thermopylae in 480 BC, the plucky and outnumbered Spartans put up a valiant fight against the massive army of Persian invaders.

But at the box office over the weekend, there was no contest for “300,” the film adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel about the celebrated Greek battle.

The movie broke records with ticket sales of $70 million in the U.S. and Canada, according to Sunday’s estimate from studio Warner Bros.

Fueled by months of feverish buzz from Internet movie fans, the violent and stylized “300” scored the highest March opening ever, topping last year’s “Ice Age: The Meltdown.”

Averaging a whopping $22,567 per theater, the epic also notched the biggest debut weekend of this year, easily topping “Ghost Rider.”

Last weekend’s leader, the motorcycle comedy “Wild Hogs,” finished a distant second, and the family adventure “Bridge to Terabithia” was third.

“This was like a summer weekend,” said Mark Canton, one of the producers of “300.” “This kind of excitement is good for the whole business.”

He said director Zack Snyder’s vision struck filmgoers as bold and different, much like the original “Batman” and “Matrix” films and 2005’s “Sin City,” which also was based on one of Miller’s graphic novels.

“Everybody let Zack make exactly the movie that was in his head,” Canton said of the $64-million production with a little-known cast. “It was like a harmonic convergence.”

The film’s underdog theme also hooked moviegoers, Canton said. In the ancient battle, some 300 Spartans took on a horde believed to exceed 1 million.

Snyder had been best known for TV commercials and the 2004 version of “Dawn of the Dead,” but the buzz for “300” has been building steadily since the film was promoted at last summer’s Comic-Con, the annual comic-book convention, in San Diego.

Warner Bros., which also marketed the film heavily on MySpace.com and with trailers featuring Nine Inch Nails music, had expected an opening in the $35-million-to-$40-million range.

“This is further proof that nothing is more powerful in this business than word of mouth,” said Dan Fellman, the studio’s president of domestic distribution.

Imax locations accounted for $3.4 million of the total, Fellman said. That was a record for the giant-screen theaters.

Sell-outs at Imax and other locations started with Friday morning’s midnight showings.

Audiences for the R-rated “300” were 60% male and 52% under age 25, Warner Bros. estimated.

Though critics overall were lukewarm on “300,” with many calling it artful but emotionally thin, moviegoers were more enthusiastic. Nearly 90% rated it “excellent” or “very good,” Fellman said, scores that bode well for the rest of the film’s run.

With spring break looming for high school and college students, Warner Bros. believes it has “300” set up for a strong run.

The movie opened powerfully in five other markets as well, grossing $6.2 million in the first stage of its overseas rollout.

“300” set a record in Greece at $2.9 million, supplanting last year’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” and opened No. 1 in Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia.

In the U.S., only one movie opened against “300” at a sizable number of theaters.

“The Ultimate Gift,” distributed by Bigger Picture, grossed $1.2 million at 816 theaters, averaging about $1,471 per location.

The modestly budgeted story of a trust-fund baby who loses his selfish ways has a cast including Abigail Breslin from “Little Miss Sunshine.”

Among holdovers, “Wild Hogs,” from Walt Disney Co.’s Buena Vista Pictures, dropped only 29% in its second weekend, grossing $28 million.

The buddy comedy starring John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy could get to $100 million by this weekend.

Buena Vista’s “Bridge to Terabithia” also continues to hold up well. It grossed $6.9 million to apparently finish a distant No. 3.

Sony Pictures’ action thriller “Ghost Rider,” starring Nicolas Cage, finished fourth with $6.8 million and became the first movie of the year to top $100 million in the U.S. and Canada.

With another solid weekend in other markets, the big-budget “Ghost Rider” has reached about $77 million overseas.

Paramount Pictures’ critically acclaimed crime drama “Zodiac,” a Warner Bros. co-production, also grossed an estimated $6.8 million. It dropped 49% in its second weekend to apparently finish fifth.

Thanks to “300,” overall results in the U.S. and Canada jumped 36% from the same weekend in 2006. Year to date, revenues are up 4.1% and ticket sales are up 1.7%.

This weekend’s new releases include the thriller “Premonition,” starring Sandra Bullock; the Chris Rock comedy-drama “I Think I Love My Wife”; and the horror film “Dead Silence.”

josh.friedman@latimes.com

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Box office

Preliminary results (in millions) in the U.S. and Canada, based on studio projections:

*--* Movie 3-day gross Total 300 $70.0 $70.0

Wild Hogs 28.0 77.4

Bridge to Terabithia 6.9 67.0

Ghost Rider 6.8 104.1

Zodiac 6.8 23.7

The Number 23 4.3 29.3

Norbit 4.3 88.3

Music & Lyrics 3.8 43.8