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Coming very soon to a theater near you: God of War the Movie, Prince of Persia the Movie and Indiana Jones the Videogame the Movie

David Mumpower: The one aspect of this where I believe Snyder deserves a ton of credit is in his implementation of something the action genre had been sorely lacking: boss fights. 300 is oftentimes a videogame disguised as a movie. That's pure genius right there. It strikes the perfect chord for its target audience.

Tim Briody: I hope he dropped some phat loot.

Kim Hollis: Really, I always thought the trailer looked more like it was for a video game than for a film. So the boss fight thing makes perfect sense.

David Mumpower: Between this and the Dawn of the Dead re-make, Snyder is proving himself to be exactly the type of director frauds like Michael Bay and McG posture themselves to be.

Reagen Sulewski: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A.

Tim Briody: Uwe Boll, take note.

Reagen Sulewski: Don't. Encourage. The Boll.

Kim Hollis: *mashes a bunch of buttons at once*

David Mumpower: On a sidenote, this is sheer anecdotal speculation on my part, but I do feel the anticipation a lot of young males have for God of War II's release this week heightened the demand for the similarly themed 300.

Wa wa wee wa! Buy my video or I will be execute!

Kim Hollis: Are you more impressed by Borat's $26.5 million opening in 837 exhibitions or 300's $70 million in 3,103?

Reagen Sulewski: I think maybe still Borat. That had much room for error.

Tim Briody: I agree, and it was a bit more of a wild card even at its release.

David Mumpower: They're the same story on a different scale. Both feature unknowns and seemed to have little buzz until the month of release. Borat's venue average dwarfs 300's and the difference in budgets ($18 million vs. $60 million) also favors that project. Each is a stunning accomplishment of marketing, however. Also, 300 is the significantly better movie, which should count for something.

Kim Hollis: Yeah, I would have to say Borat as well. It was much closer to being an out-of-nowhere success than what 300 was. I remember people noticing 300 during the third quarter of 2006 when the trailer came out. Borat gained steam in its last few weeks. It was also a *much* harder sell, I think. People like gladiator movies (for some reason).

Reagen Sulewski: I'm not sure I'd agree with you on that last point, David, but it's a matter of opinion.

David Mumpower: I wanted to enjoy Borat more than I did and once the shock value was gone, it doesn't hold up well. 300's quality is unmistakable, because it's a bunch of great character actors telling a proven story.





Reagen Sulewski: I think everyone involved gets to write their own ticket for the next little while, which is the important thing.

David Mumpower: That's right. The biggest winner in all of this is Watchmen, which just went from a hard sell to a possible tentpole release.

You really shouldn't encourage them, people

Kim Hollis: Equally impressive on a smaller scale is the success of Wild Hogs. The mid-life crisis comedy declined a mere 29% to $28 million, giving it a gigantic ten-day total of $77.4 million. Are you more surprised by its opening weekend or its staying power?

Reagen Sulewski: I kind of had a feeling about its staying power, although not to this degree. It looked just middle-of-the-road enough to twig with suburban audiences.

David Mumpower: I would say I'm equally surprised...and impressed. We have argued for years that competition is overrated, but part of me expected it to get swallowed somewhat by 300 despite the lack of demographic overlap. A 29% holdover is sensational. $135 million in domestic receipts seems likely now. Who saw that coming?

Reagen Sulewski: It's like they filmed an extra special movie edition of Home Improvement or something.

Tim Briody: The stupidity of it was too hard to overcome, but we really should have seen this coming. Every few years there's a March comedy that hits it big with adult viewers, whether we like it or not. I mentioned Analyze This and Bringing Down the House in the Friday analysis as perfect comparisons.

Kim Hollis: I'm a little more surprised by the opening itself. I was expecting it to strike a chord and be pretty big - but $28 million big rather than $40 million big. After its Friday-to-Sunday multiplier last weekend, I really expected it to have great hold this week, too. People who like this sort of thing seem to be enjoying it (regardless of reviews).

Tim Briody: I suppose we should be happy that William H. Macy gets to pay the mortgage for a few months?

Kim Hollis: I don't really think there's any worry about that with Felicity's paychecks.

Reagen Sulewski: We were this close to getting rid of Martin Lawrence for good. Now we'll get 17 more fatsuits comedies with him.

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