Testosterone-drenched action flick '300' pummeled the box ofice over the weekend, looting over $70 million from moviegoers eager to be washed in CGI gore. Made on a $60 million budget, that adds up to big bucks for Warner Bros., who have been promoting the movie non-stop. This is the highest-grossing movie ever released in March (a boast that looks a bit sillier when the previous winner was last year's "Ice Age: The Meltdown" at $68 million). A better comparison of note is that no film has opened so well since last summer's hotly-anticipated "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" which brought in $135.6 million during its opening weekend. Not bad stats for a movie starring Gérard ("Phantom of the Opera") Butler.

The real human interest story emerging is the surge of incoming fannish types. Frank Miller's work (he wrote the comic 300 on which the film was based) has always inspired heartfelt devotion from fans new to his writing style (those more familiar, at least with his recent stuff, tend to mutter about his needing to change his meds and get over his issues with his mother). '300' has only been out for three days, and already sparked huge debate on the internet. Is this is best spectacle movie of the year? Is it a thinly-veiled rightwing recruitment video? Is it yet another Important Film that takes itself so seriously it inspires giggles? Should reviewers just sit back and enjoy the site and not read too deeply into a movie with lobster people? More to the point, can fans defend their opinion of same to random people on the 'net who disagree with them?

In other words, it's a new fandom. Personally, this writer is sitting back, setting a timer, and waiting for the slash.