Box Office Report: 300 sequel rises to the top

3D action sequel 300: Rise of an Empire came out victorious at the Aussie box office over the weekend. The long-gestating sequel to 2007’s 300 took an impressive $3.17 million over the weekend, beating out last week’s top film, Non-Stop. The goodwill held over from the original film definitely helped Rise of an Empire, and reviews have been decent without being overwhelmingly positive. The film, which stars Aussie Sullivan Stapleton (Animal Kingdom) and Eva Green (Casino Royale) should stick around in the chart for a while. Teen flick Vampire Academy debuted at #3, which is impressive given its narrow target audience.

Also making its debut was Australian film Tracks, starring Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland) and future Star Wars villain Adam Driver (TV’s Girls). The film is an adaptation of Robyn Davidson’s memoir, which chronicles her epic 2,700km trek across the deserts of Western Australia in 1977. The film was shot in South Australia and Northern Territory and has received strong reviews from its screenings at the Toronto and Venice Film Festivals in 2013.

Best Picture champ 12 Years a Slave received a post-Oscars boost over the weekend, as did Dallas Buyers Club, which won Oscars for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor.

This week sees the release of two very different films. The first is action pic Need For Speed. The film is positioned to fill the void left by the lack of a Fast and Furious movie this year, as well as being the first starring vehicle for Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul. The other film is period caper The Monuments Men, directed by and starring George Clooney. The film has been marketed as a kind of WWII Ocean’s 11 and also stars Matt Damon and Cate Blanchett. The star power involved should help the film overcome average reviews and box office from overseas.

300: Rise of an Empire also took the top spot in the US over the past weekend, earning $45.03 million, which is 36% down from the opening weekend of 300 in 2007. This drop is to be expected given the lack of big stars in the film and the extended period between the films. Second place was taken by the new Dreamworks animated film Mr. Peabody & Sherman, which took $32.2 million in its opening weekend.

Mr. Peabody & Sherman is released in Australian cinemas on March 27.

All figures from The Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia and Box Office Mojo.

———-

This content has recently been ported from its original home on The Iris and may have formatting errors – images may not be showing up, or duplicated, and galleries may not be working. We are slowly fixing these issue. If you spot any major malfunctions making it impossible to read the content, however, please let us know at editor AT theaureview.com.