Spartans dine on the US box office for a second week

After last week’s phenomenal $70 million plus opening, all eyes were back on ancient Sparta again for this weekend’s US box office results. Given that it had kept up a healthy tally during the week, 300 was expected to win its second weekend of release, but interest was more in how much it would drop.

We have our answer: according to studio estimates, it’s down 56% this weekend, though it still took in $31.1 million and has now soared to $127.4 million. Expect it to stay around for a while yet.

In second place, Wild Hogs showed no sign of slowing down, making an impressive $18.8 million in its third week, for a current total of $104 million. Looks like the US public’s appetite for bad movies is still in full swing. That meant Sandra Bullock’s latest, twisted time tale Premonition, had to settle for third, and $18 million as it arrived in cinemas. Don’t feel bad for Sandy, though- that’s her highest opening ever for a movie.

In fourth, part of the Saw team brought us Dead Silence and while some have pointed to the lack of clever marketing (it’s a Universal film, not Saw’s usual Lionsgate handlers) in its slightly weak release, it managed $7.7 million on opening day.

Despite a more mature subject matter, Chris Rock still can’t seem to find a widespread audience, with remake I Think I Love My Wife staggering to fifth place with $5.7 million. That’s just ahead of Bridge To Terabithia in sixth, which has been out for five weeks already. The Disney family fantasy adventure currently has $74.9 million in the bank.

Idling away at seventh is Ghost Rider, which made $4 million this weekend, pushing it past the $110 million mark in the US alone. And still lurking about, pulling in those few punters after quality filmmaking, Zodiac took eighth place, snatching $3 million. David Fincher’s latest is sadly only at $29 million to date.

And sitting at the bottom of the charts we find Norbit slowly sinking to ninth, having nabbed $92.3 million thus far, with Music And Lyrics singing for its supper at 10th, with a disappointing total haul of $47.3 million, which includes this week’s $2 million.