Mel Gibson's Passion Sets New February Record

Commingsoon.net ^ | 2-29-04

[Neuromancer]

Mel Gibson's Passion Sets New February Record

Sunday, February 29, 2004

The Coming Soon! Box Office Report has been updated with the studio estimates for this weekend. Be sure to stay tuned there for the final figures on Monday afternoon.

Exceeding all expectations, Mel Gibson's controversial The Passion of The Christ, about the last twelve hours of Jesus of Nazareth's life, earned an incredible $76.2 million this weekend from 3,043 theaters to average a big $25,041 per theater. That marks the all-time biggest opening for a film in February, surpassing the previous record of $58 million set by Hannibal in 2001.

It is also the seventh largest opening weekend ever and the film collected an impressive $32.8 million just on Saturday, which is the eighth biggest single day in the history of box office. The $30 million budgeted "Passion" was released by Newmarket Films and has made $117.5 million already since opening on Wednesday.

To show you how big that is, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers earned $115.6 million in its first five days in more theaters, while Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets earned $93.7 million in that amount of time, also in more theaters.

[Libertina]

Certain groups of people will be deeply sadened. ;)

[armyboy]

I hpoe Mel Gibson's The Passion breaks all movie money making records.

[armyboy]

I hope Mel Gibson's The Passion breaks all movie money making records.

[Mr. Mojo]

After adding up all the DVD/video sales, it very well may.

[Neuromancer]

It is almost certain that the estimates for Sunday are understated.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

As further proof of the stunning success of "The Passion of the Christ," consider that it was initially scheduled to only open on some 2,000 screens.

It was only at the last minute, when theaters were selling out, did exhibitors scramble to find more screens on which to show the film. It's now appearing on nearly 5,000 screens.

The market dictates...as God wills.

[loudmouths]

When the average of 25,000 per theater is looked at; if Gibson had 700 more theaters, the average per theater amount and the total gross amount would have been much more.

[CathyRyan]

Just for the heck of it I called my local theater and asked when and if they would show The Passion.... Bless her heart, the poor lady that answered the phone did not act in any way surprised I asked.

[Neuromancer]

Possibly building all the way to the Good Friday/Easter weekend.

However, I am uncertain as to how many screens will still be showing it in April.

[h.a. cherev]

Certain groups of people will be deeply sadened.

I think you're mistaken. This is a catch-22 situation. Various so-called "Jewish" organizations and "leaders" denounce the film as "anti-Semitic". These people make hundreds of thousands of $$$ scaring Jews about anti-Semitism, almost exclusively from the Christian right. So what happens? Christians, particularly from the right attend the movie in droves. The "leaders" then say to their money sources, "see, we were right about the Christians all along". Mel is laughing all the way to the bank because the "Jewish leaders" gave him so much free publicity and the "leaders" are laughing because Mel has given them another tool with which to frighten stupid people.

[Tamzee]

Mel to the Hollywood and media leftists...

[Snuffington]

That's an almost conspiritorial analysis. I don't for a moment doubt that Abe Foxman and the rest of the Jewish spokesmen worried about anti-Semitism were insincere. They were tactless, foolish, and irresponsible. But they weren't faking it.

Similarly, Mel truly was dismayed by the charges of anti-Semitism. He wasn't secretly pleased because it was part of a master strategy to promote the movie. Even if it turned out for the better in the end, box-office wise, that was far from a certain outcome.

[DJtex]

Also posted on another thread, sorry---

Rank	Title	Studio	Opening*	% of Total	Theaters	Average	Gross-to-date	Date**
1	The Matrix Reloaded	WB	$144,391,066	51.3%	3,603	$40,075	$281,576,461	5/15/03
2	Spider-Man	Sony	$135,840,755	33.6%	3,615	$37,577	$403,706,375	5/3/02
3	The Return of the King	NL	$124,100,534	-	3,703	$33,514	$364,091,000	12/17/03
4	Attack of the Clones	Fox	$120,829,572	38.9%	3,161	$38,225	$310,676,740	5/16/02
5	The Passion of the Christ	NM	$117,538,000	-	3,043	$38,626	$117,538,000	2/25/04
6	The Phantom Menace	Fox	$105,661,237	24.5%	2,970	$35,576	$431,088,297	5/19/99

[Cboldt]

Your attitude strikes me as being deeply cynical.

[Houmatt]

Actually I think you are the one who is mistaken.

Having actually seen the film myself, the word "jew" rarely pops up in the dialogue, so it would be a waste of time for these so-called leaders to suggest anti-semitism using that route.

Also, while others cried during the film's duration, I got angry. But not at jews, for the aforementioned reason. I was angry because what happened to Jesus Christ was allowed period, and I would have gladly jumped into that film and opened up a can of whoop-ass if I could have. But Jesus would not have gone for that, as it was shown His own disciples fought to protect Him from those who wanted to arrest Him, Jesus told them to simply back off, as He would go willingly.

[Snuffington]

I think you need to check your historical sources. There has been some excellent scholarship done on the Spanish Inquisition, begun in the 1990's and dealing with primary sources. You might be surprised by it.

[jwalsh07]

He won't be surprised and he's not interested in discourse. His, its, only interest is posting that one comment on as many threads as possible before almost certain banishment.

[IDontLikeToPayTaxes]

Just for the heck of it I called my local theater and asked when and if they would show The Passion.... Bless her heart, the poor lady that answered the phone did not act in any way surprised I asked.

Same here. I called my local theatre Wednesday afternoon, and the lady told me that there are 5 sold out sessions until March 6. That's just the local churches that reserved the theatre. Plus, there is another theatre in my county that's showing The Passion.

I live in a very small town in Southwest VA, and for TWO theatres to be showing the same movie is basically amazing. I can't remember this ever happening. :)