As predicted, 300 had a huge Friday opening, ShowBizData reports via Superhero Hype!:
This could be a watershed opening for Snyder and Warner Bros. who took a big chance on the stylized film based on Miller’s graphic novel after the failure of Oliver Stone’s Alexander at the box office in 2004, but it’s a good sign that Snyder’s next proposed project, an adaptation of Alan Moore’s Watchmen, will be fast-tracked come Monday morning.
Although 300 had a bigger opening day than last year’s Ice Age: The Meltdown, which currently holds the March weekend opening record with $68.03 million, the guy-friendly movie is also likely to be more frontloaded to Friday, which means it might be a close one if it’s going to break that record for the weekend.
The number includes IMAX and Thursday midnight screening receipts.
If the ladies over at GB.net are to be believed (and we do), there was much cosplay at opening night:
I just went to our Philly area IMAX to pick up our tickets for the IMAX showing tonight. The theater was absolutely mobbed at 4:00- hundreds of mostly young men, many of them dressed up in helmets and red capes (over clothes, thankfully: it’s 38 degrees here right now, and a few of them were not exactly mankind’s finest specimens – but they were having a blast of a good time).
And another:
Various strangers approached us to have our picture taken with them (I’ll post my own photos later), and we obliged. A little while later, as the lines were building, who should come strolling in the doors but a group of about ten teenage guys, all quite buff, wearing nothing but sandals, shorts, and red cloaks, carrying shields and wooden spears. We cheered and they cheered back and kind of got the crowd going. The security guards gave them a hard time about the makeshift weapons, but let them take a few photos first. I quote a gurad into his walky-talky verbatim “We’ve got hostiles with sticks.” Hilarious. Anyway, my sister and I trotted over to the fellas and asked for a photo, and one’s response was “hell yeah!” and then another said something like “we’ve got to protect the women,” it was very funny.
The 5 PM show I went to in Seattle was nearly sold out, which is really rare.
It was a fun movie, Heidi, you were right. The messed up part was the Barnes and Noble near the theatre not having a single copy of the book, and tons of people were looking for it.
Sounds like alot of fun.
It was sold out at the show I saw at the AMC in Santa Monica, young couples and large groups of friends. They hooted and applauded as the movie started (impeccable digital projection and ear-splitting digital sound) and applauded at the end as well. No costumes were sighted.
There were ticket scalpers at a theater in Baton Rouge last night! We went all the way to Covington to see it. It wasn’t a movie it was an EVENT! Prepare for GLORY!
the guy-friendly movie is also likely to be more frontloaded to Friday,
I don’t know about that. I caught a 4:50pm showing at a suburban IMAX here in NY and it was sold out with a 50/50 male/female audience. My guess is it will do between $70-80m this weekend, on its way to a Gladiator-like take of $175m+. Brubaker’s point about a lack of copies at B&N is disappointing, but not terribly surprising since, I believe, Diamond is its exclusive distributor. (More thoughts here.)
two books you cant find this weekend, 300 and captain america. I blame ed. lol….congrats to all this week!
At least they didn’t have to keep the release of a major motion picture a secret from bookstores. :)
Ed, you be quiet….haven’t you done enough damage for one week?
Ahem…. THIS employee of the Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Center has displayed both 300 books (the GN and the Movie art book) at the Customer Service desk on the First Floor, since at least December. (I also godfather the GN section, working hard to make it as good as it can be.)
And it doesn’t take a major movie for us to promote a good book. Well, the National Book Award nomination helps, as do reviews in the New York Times Book Review. Or an enthusiastic recommendation from a bookseller. (That’s how I convinced a presidential candidate to read Watchmen.)
And thank you, Mr. Brubaker, for making comics interesting.
You should come work at the Barnes and Noble in Seattle. They had neither on display, and I really wanted to buy 300. I never bought it in trade or HB.