Warner Bros.' special effects-rich movie "300" won another battle for audience in North America theaters this weekend, remaining as No.1 at box office with an estimated 31.2 millions U.S. dollars of ticket sales, according to preliminary figures released Sunday. (AFP Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    LOS ANGELES, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Warner Bros.' special effects-rich movie "300" won another battle for audience in North America theaters this weekend, remaining as No.1 at box office with an estimated 31.2 millions U.S. dollars of ticket sales, according to preliminary figures released Sunday.

    The epic, which tells the story that an army of 300 Spartan warriors fought to the death to delay a massive Persian army's invasion in the 480 B.C. Battle of Thermopylae in the Greek history, managed to reap huge returns after setting a new record as the best March debut in U.S. film history last weekend.

    Ticket sales for the movie dropped about 56 percent from last weekend, but it still boasts a total estimated gross of 127.5 million dollars in its 10 days in theaters, making it the leading box office release this year, said the Los Angeles-base box office tracker Media By Numbers.

    Final box office figures will be released Monday.

    Disney's "Wild Hogs," starring John Travolta, Tim Allen and Martin Lawrence as aging roadsters, held on to second place with an estimated 18.8 million dollars.

    Sony's psychological thriller "Premonition," starring Sandra Bullock as a wife who has a premonition of her husband's death in a car crash, came in third with an estimated 18 million dollars.

    Two other new releases, Universal's "Dead Silence" of a horror tale in which a murdered ventriloquist's dummies come to life and wreak havoc on a small town, and comedian Chris Rock's romantic comedy-drama "I Think I Love My Wife," debuted at No. 4 and No. 5,respectively with 7.8 million and 5.7 million dollars.

    The weekend's top 12 films posted a combined gross of 102.4 million dollars, up 10.5 percent over the 92.7 million dollars in ticket sales for the same weekend last year.

    Box office hits like "300" and "Wild Hogs" have served as a warm-up for the coming summer season, when major Hollywood studios will release latest sequels of some blockbusters like "Shrek," "Spider-Man," "Pirates of the Caribbean," and "Harry Potter."

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