“Fanboy” movies typically do particularly well in Thursday night runs, and it was true last night for 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE (Warners/Legendary), which pulled in $3.3M in screenings that began at 8PM. That’s the same Thursday start as last summer’s Pacific Rim, which had a $37.3M opening weekend for Warners and Legendary, but the comp they’d prefer people to notice is the same Thursday result for World War Z, which jumped to $66.4M by Sunday. The original 300, in 2007, didn’t start its screenings until midnight, and earned $2.5M just from those (it was also in 2D only) and had a giant $70.8M opening weekend.
Somewhat more unusually, Wes Anderson’s art-house release THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (Fox Searchlight) also got an early start with screenings that started at 7PM in NY and LA, but we don’t have numbers for those. MR. PEABODY AND SHERMAN (DreamWorks Animation/20th) stuck to its Friday opening.
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About the Author
Mitch Salem
MITCH SALEM has worked on the business side of the entertainment industry for 20 years, as a senior business affairs executive and attorney for such companies as NBC, ABC, USA, Syfy, Bravo, and BermanBraun Productions, and before that, at the NY law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. During all that, he has more or less constantly been going to the movies and watching TV, and writing about both since the 1980s. His film reviews also currently appear on screened.com and the-burg.com. In addition, he is co-writer of an episode of the television series "Felicity."
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