‘300’ sequel conquers the weekend box office

Overtakes Mr Peabody to capture weekend box office.

LOS ANGELES:

The action film 300: Rise of an Empire, battled its way to $45 million in ticket sales to win the weekend box office race, smashing its way past the animated film Mr Peabody & Sherman.

Set in ancient Greece, 300: Rise of an Empire is the blood-splattered sequel to the 2006 blockbuster 300. It takes place before and after the earlier film when 300 Spartans marched to their deaths in a battle against the Persians.

In the sequel, an alliance of Greek city-states wage battle on the seas against the Persians.

Mr Peabody & Sherman, based on the Peabody’s Improbable History segments in the 1960s animated TV show starring the characters Rocky and Bullwinkle, collected ticket sales of $32.5 million at US and Canadian theatres.

The movie, which features the talking dog Mr Peabody and his adopted boy, Sherman, exceeded studio 20th Century Fox’s expectations for an opening from about $25 million to $30 million. The movie was directed by Rob Minkoff, who also directed the 1994 animated film The Lion King, which was nominated for four Academy Awards and won two for its soundtrack.

Last week’s box office winner, Non-Stop, was third with $15.4 million in sales. The film stars Liam Neeson as an alcoholic US air marshal racing to stop a string of murders on an international flight.

The Lego Movie, took the No. 4 overall spot with $11 million, according to Rentrak. The animated hit based on the colourful plastic building blocks has now totaled $225 million since its February 7 release.

Rounding out the top five, Son of God, based on The Bible television mini-series produced by Survivor producer Mark Burnett and his wife, Roma Downey, collected sales of $10 million.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2014.

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