A nearly 20-year-old film is finding a new audience. Zack Snyder's 300 has climbed to number five on Vudu's Top 10 Movies in the United States, sitting between Cast Away and Jurassic Park, as viewers prepare for Christopher Nolan's upcoming adaptation of Homer's Odyssey.
According to Collider, 300 first premiered in 2006 and entered U.S. theaters in 2007. Based on Frank Miller's 1998 graphic novel of the same name, the film follows King Leonidas, played by Gerard Butler, as he leads an army of 300 Spartan soldiers against the Persian King Xerxes, played by Rodrigo Santoro, in the Battle of Thermopylae.
The film was a significant box office success. It generated over $468 million worldwide and ranked as the 10th-highest-grossing film of 2007. It also won Best Action, Adventure, or Thriller Film and Best Director at the Saturn Awards.
Two decades after its release, 300 holds a 61% critics score and an 89% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, along with a 3.4 score on Letterboxd. Critics have described it as a muscle fantasy, with some finding it boring and one calling it Greek Myth meets Looney Tunes. Audience reactions have leaned more enthusiastic, with viewers calling it empowering and filled with adrenaline.
The renewed interest is tied directly to anticipation for Nolan's Odyssey. Multiple outlets including The Washington Post, The Hollywood Reporter, and USA Today have published rankings of every Nolan film this week, now that The Odyssey is available for critics to assess. The film is Nolan's 13th feature and takes on Homer's ancient epic.
Snyder directed 300 roughly a decade before he entered the DC Universe. It remains one of his most visually distinctive early works and helped establish the hyper-stylized aesthetic he would carry into later projects.
For fans looking to revisit Ancient Greece before heading to theaters for The Odyssey, 300 is currently available on Vudu.
