A Greek revival at the box office (VAR, THR, BOM, MCN)

By Ken-Ali

It may have been a weekend filled with March Madness and Irish greenery, but the Greeks still ruled the box office.

According to Movie City News, "The Spartans of '300' were still commanding the field even as their energies diminished by 56% to an estimated $31.3 million."

Variety on '300':

Studio brass said that ticket sales on the male-skewing "300" were slightly stunted by the NCAA tourney and St. Patrick's Day bar-hopping, alternatives competing for guys' attention over the weekend.

Even so, the graphic novel adaptation had the heftiest per-theater average of any pic in the top 10, at $9,537.

Meanwhile, according to the Hollywood Reporter, Buena Vista Pictures had the smallest drops for the frame with both of its top-10 pictures.

The Hollywood Reporter:

The road-trip comedy "Wild Hogs" fell close to 32% its third weekend in release to earn the No. 2 slot.

Even more impressively, Walden Media's "Bridge to Terabithia" fell just 24% in its fifth weekend. The family-friendly film finished sixth for the frame, grossing an additional $5.1 million to put its cume at $74.9 million.

Movie City News noted the continued earning power of 2007:

Response to '300' has been considerably stronger than anticipated with the bygone heroics generating in excess of $100 million domestically in eight days of release.

'Wild Hogs' also crossed that benchmark this past weekend and the two films along with 'Norbit' and 'Ghost Rider' have converted the slow starting first quarter from a deficit into a 2% improvement for the year to date.

Variety reports Sony's "Premonition," which bowed in 2,831 locations, finished third with $18 million -- the biggest opening weekend ever for star Sandra Bullock. (Thesp's previous high was the $16.1 million bow for "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" in 2002).

Box Office Mojo gets the last word on new releases:

'Dead Silence' opened with a peep: an estimated $7.8 million at 1,805 locations. Universal said that 73 percent of moviegoers were under 25 and 57 percent were female.

Few committed to 'I Think I Love My Wife', which attracted a scant estimated $5.7 million at 1,776 sites. Though people may enjoy him in television appearances or in comedy concerts, Rock has only carried one successful movie ('Down to Earth' in 2001) and his most popular movies have been supporting roles ('The Longest Yard', 'Lethal Weapon 4').