Everyone that I’ve talked to that saw 300 this weekend enjoyed the hell out of it, and the box office weekend estimates have come in – showing that this flick is a sure-fire summer blockbuster (and it’s not even summer yet!)

Yahoo Movies spreads the good word:

The ancient battle of Thermopylae was the stuff of 2007’s first certified blockbuster as the bloody action tale “300″ debuted with ticket sales of $70 million over its opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

That’s about $233,000 for every one of the legendary 300 Spartan soldiers who fought off a much larger Persian force in the epic battle.

“On a Spartan-by-Spartan basis, that’s a lot of money,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. “Summer came a little early, because this is a summer-style opening.”

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The number of movie-goers for the Warner Bros. epic “300″ outnumbered crowds for the rest of the top-10 movies combined. If the estimate holds when final numbers are released Monday, “300″ would break the record for best March debut ever, topping the $68 million haul for “Ice Age: The Meltdown” last year.

“300″ played in 3,103 theaters, about 850 fewer than the “Ice Age” sequel, making its box-office performance even more notable. It averaged $22,567 a theater, a whopping number for a wide release.

The total for “300″ includes $3.4 million from 62 IMAX theaters, a record opening weekend for the large-screen format.

Buoyed by “300″ and some solid holdovers, Hollywood business soared, with the top 12 movies totaling $139.4 million, up 49 percent from the same weekend last year.

“300″ bumped off the previous weekend’s No. 1 movie, Disney’s “Wild Hogs,” which slipped to second place but held up well with $28 million, raising its total to $77.4 million.

ATTENTION HOLLYWOOD: Make visually interesting movies that appeal to a wide audience and PEOPLE WILL GO SEE IT! Stop making CRAP, and we’ll stop staying away from the theaters!!!!

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