Weekend Box Office: '300: Rise Of An Empire' Makes $132M Worldwide Bow — forbes.com

Considering the fact that it’s been seven years since ‘s visually groundbreaking 300 and that there have been any number of pretenders (Immortals, Clash of the Titans, etc.) in its wake, the $46 million opening weekend for its sequel falls squarely into the category of “not bad”. The surprisingly good prequel/sequel (“side-quel” would be the most accurate description) debuted yesterday with $45.05 million. $6.8m of that came from its 343 IMAX locations (it’s their second-biggest R-rated debut), and I’d argue this is the first “must see it in IMAX” film since Gravity. That’s 45%  below the $70.9m opening weekend of the original 300, even with the 3D up-charge and seven years of inflation. But I don’t think anyone was expecting lightning to strike twice anymore than we expected Angels and Demons ($46m on opening weekend) to match The Da Vinci Code ($70m).

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