Much like my reaction to the film, upon seeing the box office take for this week's number one film, one word came to mind — wow. Who would have thought that this highly stylized, fictionalized take on the battle of Thermopylae was going to be such a huge hit?

I remember, when I saw the first trailer for 300, and I thought that it was going to be a hard sell. I was personally very excited to see the film, but I figured this would have a decent opening and then tail off from there. Man, was I wrong. 300 opened with over $70 million dollars, making it the biggest opening of the year, the biggest March opening ever, and the third biggest opening for an R-rated film.

Like I said, when I saw the first ads, I was very much looking forward to it, but had no idea how it would play to the public at large. As the release date got closer and the advertising picked up, it became readily apparent that it was going to be a bit bigger than expected. That said, I thought that I was being generous in my prediction of $42 million. It got great reviews and the people responded in droves. It is a beautiful thing to see — the film outperformed everyone's expectations, and turned out to be immensely entertaining. Run, don't walk, to your local theater and take it in in all its glory!

300 was the only new wide release taking its bow this weekend, leaving the rest of the field to be fought over by last week's crop. Wild Hogs led the pack with nearly $28 million, down a mere 30% from last week. This has proven to be a solid hit for the four stars. It may not be strong of story, but it will definitely make you laugh out loud. Both of these films left the competition way behind.