Bet those folks stayed out in movie lines for months to see this drek realize their time would have been better spent in Mel's line.
Posted on 02/25/2004 3:58:46 PM PST by miltonim
LOS ANGELES - Mel Gibson (news)'s "The Passion of the Christ" took in an estimated $15 million to $20 million after just one day of release, a remarkable number for a religious-themed movie so divisive that no Hollywood studio would touch it.
"The Passion" rang up $7 million in matinee ticket sales alone in the United States and Canada on Wednesday, said Rob Schwartz, head of distribution for Newmarket Films, which Gibson hired to release the movie after studios balked.
With an estimated $3 million from private screenings for church groups Monday and Tuesday in advance of Wednesday's official opening, grosses for "The Passion" were expected to climb as high as $20 million once evening screenings are counted, Schwartz said.
Final numbers were to be released Thursday.
That falls far short of the single-day record of $43.6 million held by "Spider-Man," but "The Passion" already has passed the receipts that other modern religious films took in during their entire runs, among them "The Last Temptation of Christ" ($8.4 million) and "The Omega Code" ($12.5 million).
"The Passion" opened on 4,643 screens in 3,006 theaters.
"I think the prospects are certainly good for at least hitting $100 million overall. Then again, we have to see how the rest of the weekend plays out," Schwartz said. "Hopefully, if we continue the torrid pace we're starting to set now, that's an achievable number."
Gibson put up the film's $25 million budget out of his own pocket. After theater owners take their cut, about half of the box office take will come back to Gibson, who then pays Newmarket a percentage fee for distribution.
The film, starring Jim Caviezel (news) as Jesus, is a bloody depiction of Christ's final hours and crucifixion. The movie's box-office prospects benefited from months of debate as Gibson built grassroots support by screening it for church groups and excluding potential critics, while some Christian and Jewish leaders complained that it could fuel anti-Semitism by implying Jews were collectively responsible for Christ's death
I estimate a $300 million gross on these bases.
Where did Yahoo! get these numbers? Its still Wednesday, and I know for a fact that all of the evening shows tonight (around here at least) are sold out. I think you can probably double that $15 to $20 million figure.
Bet those folks stayed out in movie lines for months to see this drek realize their time would have been better spent in Mel's line.
"Hypocritics" who all of a sudden found a movie that is violent! Never in Hollywood's history has a movie with violence been made!
These are obviously the same critics that called Oliver Stone to task for "Natural Born Killers." < /sarcasm>
Gibson's decision to have the dialogue in Aramaic with subtitles puzzled some... but it makes sense... everyone, worldwide, gets to have the same "experience".
I have seen that it is opening on 4500 screens. So that is is $4444 per screen assuming 20 million total. Now, let's assume 5 showings a day for each screen. So that is $888 per showing. Finally, assume $8.00 per ticket. That means that there are an average of 111 seats filled for each viewing.
Now, maybe I am wrong, but most of the theaters I have been to have a lot more than 111 seats. I don't know the average number of seats in a theater. Let's just say 500, which is probably low, and let's assume only 80% capacity per viewing (which is probably low given what we have heard about today). That would be 400 seats x $8 = $3200 per viewing. $3200 x 5 viewings per day is $16,000 per screen. $16,000 x 4500 screens means a first day take of $72 million.
Did I do that right? Somebody want to check my math? Also, if anyone has better stats on theaters feel free to recalc? Bottom line, 20 million seems low.
I've read 2800 screens from several sources.
From the article above
"The Passion" opened on 4,643 screens in 3,006 theaters
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