Seven years after Zack Snyder’s 300 became the surprise hit of 2007, its sequel, 300: Rise of an Empire easily topped the weekend box office with an estimated $45.1 million.  While a far cry from 300’s $70.9 million debut, Rise of an Empire had more than enough box office clout to outdistance another newcomer, Dreamworks’ animated Mr. Peabody & Sherman, which could manage just $32.5 million in the face of major competition for the family film audience.  Overall the total of the top 12 films was up just 2.1% from the same weekend a year ago when Sam Raimi’s Oz: The Great and Powerful debuted with $79 million.
 
Though it is far behind 300 in the domestic market, Rise of an Empire is doing better than its predecessor overseas where it has already earned $87.8 million.  While the tightly focused 300 chronicled the heroic stand by a group of 300 Spartan warriors at the Battle of Thermopylae, Rise of an Empire concentrates on the sea battles between the Greeks and the Persians.  Given, the more diffuse narrative, the 7-year gap between the two films, and the replacement of Zack Snyder by Noam Munro, Warner Bros. should be happy with the performance of Rise of an Empire, at least so far. 
 
A major marketing campaign that included plenty of TV spots shown during winter sporting events helped bring at least of portion of the male action movie audience back to the theaters for Rise of an Empire’s debut, though it should be noted that Rise did noticeably better with females, as the film’s opening weekend audience was only 62% male compared with the 71% registered by 300 back in 2007.  The "R" rated swords and sandals military epic managed to attract 30% of its opening weekend crowd from the coveted 24-34 demographic.  Unfortunately the opening weekend crowd gave the film a mediocre "B" CinemaScore, which coupled with its mixed reviews (just 43% positive on Rotten Tomatoes) could translate to a fairly short run at the box office.  Still there is no doubt that Rise of an Empire will expose a huge mainstream audience to Frank Miller’s work.  It is unfortunate that retailers will not be able to take advantage of the situation since Miller’s Xerxes graphic novel is still not ready for publication (see "Frank Miller's '300' Sequel").

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): March 7-9, 2014
	Film	Weekend Gross	Screens	Avg./ Screen	Total Gross	Wk#
1	300: Rise of An Empire	$45,050,000	3,470	$12,983	$45,050,000	1
2	Mr. Peabody & Sherman	$32,500,000	3,934	$8,261	$32,500,000	1
3	Non-Stop	$15,378,000	3,113	$4,940	$52,117,000	2
4	The LEGO Movie	$11,005,000	3,290	$3,345	$224,974,000	5
5	Son of God	$10,000,000	3,271	$3,057	$41,494,000	2
6	The Monuments Men	$3,100,000	2,001	$1,549	$70,602,000	5
7	3 Days to Kill	$3,062,000	2,348	$1,304	$25,556,000	3
8	Frozen	$3,010,000	1,660	$1,813	$393,051,000	16
9	12 Years a Slave	$2,175,000	1,065	$2,042	$53,107,000	21
10	Ride Along	$2,004,000	1,323	$1,515	$129,968,000	8

Second place this weekend went to Dreamworks’ animated Mr. Peabody & Sherman, which adapted the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show segments ("Peabody’s Improbable History") about a time-traveling pooch and his pet boy for the big screen.  Though Mr. Peabody is by far the best big screen version of any Jay Ward characters yet, the film is off to a weak start largely because of stiff competition from family audience-targeting holdovers The LEGO Movie and Frozen, both of which remained in the top ten this weekend.  The good news for Mr. Peabody is the fact that the film earned a solid "A" CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences, which should translate into a long stay in theaters.  Peabody is an expensive production with a price tag north of $145 million, so it will need to do well both here and abroad, where it has already earned $40 million in limited release, to break even.
 
Last week’s winner, the Liam Neeson action picture Non-Stop dropped just 46.7% as it earned $15.4 million and brought its domestic total to $52.1 million.
 
In fourth place The LEGO Movie continued to prosper in spite of competition from Mr. Peabody as it took in an estimated $11 million and brought its 2014-leading domestic total to $225 million in just five weekends.  There is no doubt that The LEGO Movie is the first big hit of 2014.
 
Last week’s runner-up, Son of God, which was fashioned from a History Channel TV series, was the only film in the top ten to suffer a precipitous decline as it tumbled 61%.  A cleverly targeted marketing campaign was able to maximize the box office impact of Son of God, which appears to be a "front-loaded" production that will do the vast majority of its business in its first two weeks of release.
 
Winning the "Best Picture" Oscar proved to be good thing for Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, which jumped from #18 last weekend to #9 as it earned an additional $2.1 million and brought its domestic total to $53.1 million.  Gravity, which took a host of other major awards, didn’t get much of a bump--demonstrating why the "Best Picture" Oscar is the most coveted of all--though it should be noted that Gravity has earned a very impressive $271.8 million here in North America.
 
Jose Padhilla’s Robocop remake slipped out of the top ten in its fourth weekend of domestic release.  Though it has earned just $55 million domestically, the $100 million production has brought in $165.3 million overseas and is close to breaking even.
 
Check back here next week to see if Rise of an Empire can continue its box office reign, or if newcomers including the action movie Need for Speed and the big screen adaptation of the cult hit TV series Veronica Mars can make much of an impression on the box office.