Bloody epic '300' earns big numbers at box office

LOS ANGELES, Mar 12 (Reuters) The blood-soaked ancient epic ''300'' slaughtered its foes at the weekend box office in North America, setting a new record for a March release by selling about 70 million dollars worth of tickets, distributor Warner Bros. Pictures said on Sunday.

The grim warrior tale stars Scottish actor Gerard Butler as Leonidas, king of the Spartans, who leads 300 of his warriors to glorious death at the Battle of Thermopylae against a massive Persian army commanded by the fey king Xerxes (Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro).

Its achievement was all the more noteworthy given that the previous record-holder for the month, 2006's ''Ice Age 2: The Meltdown,'' with 68 million dollars, was a family-oriented cartoon, while ''300'' is an unabashedly gruesome spectacle with an ''R'' rating that prevents viewers under 17 attending without adult supervision.

In fact, the opening for ''300'' ranks as the third-highest for an R-rated movie, behind ''The Matrix Reloaded'' (91 million dollars) and ''The Passion of the Christ'' (83 million dollars), said Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc.

The film, budgeted in the mid-60 million dollars range, was directed by Zack Snyder (''Dawn of the Dead''), and based on the graphic novel by comic book writer Frank Miller (''Sin City'').

It earned largely positive reviews, despite or because of its myriad decapitations and balletic battlefield carnage. The last few chart-toppers, incumbent champ ''Wild Hogs,'' ''Ghost Rider'' and ''Norbit'' were slammed by the critics.

REUTERS SB BST0917