THE 300 SEQUEL: IT’S A WIN BUT NOT A CONQUEST

Although many news accounts described the victory of 300: Rise of an Empire as a “conquest,” in keeping with the theme of the film, the movie’s $45.03 million in ticket sales actually came in at the low end of predictions. The 2007 original opened with $70.9 million, on its way to a domestic total of $210.6 million and a worldwide gross of $456.7 million. Overseas, the new movie did indeed lay waste to the box office as it opened with $87.8 million. Coming in at No. 2 at the box office was DreamWorks Animation’s Mr. Peabody & Sherman with a soft $32.2 million, sharing space on the weekly top ten with two other animated features, The Lego Movie and Frozen. The studio had appeared to be making a come-back with The Croods and How to Train Your Dragon after a couple of major disappointments with Turbo and Rise of the Guardians, but Mr. Peabody & Sherman appears to set them right back again. But the big story at the box office was the sensational performance of Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, which opened with $811,166 at just two theaters in New York and two in Los Angeles over the weekend. That put its per-theater average at $202,792 — with no 3-D surcharges included.