So, we have the first true blockbuster of 2007.  300 opened to the tune of $70.9 million over the weekend. To put things into perspective, this is bigger than last year's openings of Superman Returns ($52 millions) , Cars( $60 million) and Ice Age 2($68 million). It is also just a little shy of the opening of The Da Vinci Code ($77 million). As a matter of fact, the only two other films from last year that had bigger openings than 300 were X-Men 3 and Pirates of the Carribean 2. So yeah, pretty effing impressive.

Making this even more of a success story is the production budget of 300, which was just $65 million. Yeah, I know, "just". But this is a lot less than most blockbusters. PotC 2, SR and X-Men 3 all cost more than $200 million to make, for example. Add to that the lack of stars, which translates into lack of people taking their own cut of the profits, and Warner Brothers, which produced the film, now has what is likely to be one of the most profitable movies of the year.

We still have to see what kind of legs this film will have. I suspect it will drop fast, and might not make it to $200 million. And we don't know what the very important international box office will be like. The film opened very well in five small markets (Greece, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan) but it will only start showing in the larger markets next week. But still, that opening guarantees the film will be a success. It is now just a matter of figuring out how big a success.