Summary
In 2014, eight years after Zack Snyder’s300, the sequel300: Rise of an Empirecame along and its box office performance reveals whether the movie lived up to its predecessor’s reputation. After premiering at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2007,300received a standing ovation, and later earned praise for its stunning visuals. However, the filmalso faced intense criticism surrounding300’shistorical accuracyand political parallels. Altogether,300has remained both respected and controversial, leaving its sequel big shoes to fill.
300: Rise of an Empirehad a solid foundation to rely on before its release, as Zack Snyder returned to write the screenplay, alongside300co-writer, Kurt Johnstad.300: Rise of an Empire’scastalso saw the return of Lena Heady as Queen Gorgo and Andrew Tiernan as Ephialtes. However, certain changes put the movie at risk, including new director Noam Murro. Overall,300: Rise of an Empirehad the potential to be as successful as300.However, its box office performance tells a story different from its forerunner.
The True Story Of 300: Rise Of An Empire’s Battles Of Artemisium & Salamis
300: Rise of an Empire focuses on some major parts of the Greco-Persian War, but how accurate is it to the historical truth of its battles?
300: Rise Of An Empire Made $337 Million Worldwide At The Box Office
$106 Million Domestically & $231 Million Internationally
300: Rise of an Empiremade a total of $337 millionat the box office. $106 million of those box office earnings were made domestically, while the other $231 million was accrued internationally. Generally, this is a strong box office performance. It is all the more notable considering that300: Rise of an Empiredid not have the strongest start, earning only $45 million domestically in its opening weekend. However, the sequel eventually rose to the occasion, generating a fairly good number for a large-scale, franchise film.
Ultimately,300: Rise of an Empireended up taking the number 27 spot among the highest-grossing filmsreleased in 2014. The top-grossing movies domestically of that year includedGuardians of the Galaxy($332 million),The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part One($313 million),Captain America: The Winter Soldier($259 million), andThe LEGO Movie($257 million).Regarding critical and audience responses,300: Rise of an Empireearned 45% on Rotten Tomatoes, with some critics openly calling it a step down from 2006’s300.
300 earned a 61% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes.
How Much Was 300: Rise Of An Empire’s Budget
300: Rise of an Empire’sbox office performance is more meaningful when considering the movie’s budget. For a movie to be truly successful, it must earn back what it spent and earn extra. The general rule of thumb is a movie should make 2.5 times its production budget to account for the marketing budget and turn a profit. Luckily,300: Rise of an Empirehit this mark. The300sequel cost $110 million to make and earned $337 million at the box office.Therefore, the sequel broke even with extra money to spare.
Overall,300: Rise of an Empire’sbudget, while large, was still modest enough to allow its global haul to more than make up for what was spent. An epic film can make a significant amount of money, but if it doesn’t break even, then it’s a failure. However,because300: Rise of the Empiremanaged to far exceed its budget, it can be considered a box office success, regardless of how it compares to300.
How 300: Rise Of An Empire’s Budget & Box Office Compares To The Original Movie
300: Rise Of An Empire Made Less Than 300
Despite doing well at the box office,300: Rise of an Empiredidn’t live up to300. Theoriginal movie made $456 million at the box office, earning $119 million more than its sequel. At the domestic box office,300earned $210 million, while it brought in $245 million internationally. Opening weekend saw $70 million in earnings. The big difference between300and300: Rise of an Empirelies in the films' domestic earnings. Where300’sdomestic box office was strong, on par with its international earnings and impressive in the opening weekend,300: Rise of an Empirefell flat.
It is unclear why300: Rise of an Empirecould not reach the same heights at the domestic box office. Some potential reasons could be the long gap between movies or Zack Snyder not directing300: Rise of an Empire.It could also be that the movie’s negative reviews turned people away from seeing it. 2014 was also just getting into the height of the superhero era dominated by the MCU, and the300sequel would have been down on the priority list for most viewers. Either way,300: Rise of an Empirewas unable to match300at the box office or with critics.
300
$456 million
$210 million
$245 million
$60 million
300: Rise of an Empire
$337 million
$106 million
$231 million
$110 million
