300: Rise of an Empire rose to the top of the box office, easily besting the weekend's second new release, DreamWorks Animation's Mr. Peabody & Sherman.  Another new release of note, Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel, notched a 17th spot on the box office listing, having opened in a four-theater limited release.  Animated features The LEGO Movie and Frozen lead the total box offices to date this weekend, and newly minted Oscar-winner 12 Years a Slave gets a post-Academy Awards box office bump.  Hit the jump for more.

Title

Weekend

Total

1

300: Rise of an Empire

$45,050,000

$45.1

2

Mr. Peabody & Sherman

$32,500,000

$32.5

3

Non-Stop

$15,378,000

$52.1

4

The LEGO Movie

$11,005,000

$225.0

5

Son of God

$10,000,000

$41.5

6

The Monuments Men

$3,100,000

$70.6

7

3 Days to Kill

$3,062,000

$25.6

8

Frozen

$3,010,000

$393.1

9

12 Years a Slave

$2,175,000

$53.1

10

Ride Along

$2,004,000

$130.0

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As Adam predicted yesterday, the 300 sequel has hit an estimated $45 million for its box office debut, a healthy number considering the eight years that have passed since the original film and the presumed lack of anticipation from audiences.  Positive buzz for Eva Green's performance may have stirred some interest, or perhaps people were just ready for another round of sweaty Spartans.

That's even more surprising considering the normally strong family-friendly offering, Mr. Peabody & Sherman, also received generally positive reviews, but is over $10 million short of the top spot.  Perhaps strong competition from The LEGO Movie and Frozen siphoned off some of the debut's box office potential.

Liam Neeson's Non-Stop keeps going in its second week, but suffers a near fifty-percent drop in ticket sales.  Rounding out the top five is Son of God, which turned in the weekend's biggest drop from its #2 debut spot with nearly -61%.  The surprise entry in the top ten this weekend is 12 Years a Slave, which has been in theaters for 21 weeks and turned in an 18th spot on last weekend's list.  Surely the 654-theater increase helped numbers, but the three Oscar wins certainly didn't hurt.

Falling off the top ten this week are RoboCop - which just missed the tenth spot by an estimated $4,000 - as well as Pompeii and About Last Night.

*All box office estimates provided by Box Office Mojo.

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