Posted on 03/01/2004 8:55:07 AM PST by truthfinder9
Lord of the Rings swept the Oscars showing Hollywood's hypocrisy. Many leftists have been critical of "The Passion of the Christ." Yet they have been silent on J.R.R. Tolkien's epic, even though he was a conservative Roman Catholic like Mel Gibson and filled his books with religious themes and references. Many are on the big screen as well, but maybe most people don't notice, being victims of the public education system.
Of course, LOTR has made billions of dollars, so Hollywood is quiet. However, "The Passion of the Christ" broke all sorts of records at the box office, so I’m sure some studios are kicking themselves now.
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'Passion' Hauls in $117.5M in Five Days Sunday February 29 2:56 PM ET
Mel Gibson's gamble on "The Passion of the Christ" paid off enormously, riding a storm of religious debate to a $117.5 million haul in its first five days, according to studio estimates Sunday.
"The Passion," which debuted on Ash Wednesday, rocketed to the No. 1 box-office slot for the weekend with $76.2 million from Friday to Sunday. It was the seventh-best three-day opening ever, behind "Spider-Man" at $114.8 million and such Hollywood franchises as "The Matrix Reloaded" and the first two "Harry Potter" movies.
"The Passion" put up the second-best five-day figures for a movie opening on Wednesday, behind last year's "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" at $124.1 million and ahead of "Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace" at $105.6 million.
The first movie released in 2004 to cross the $100 million mark, "The Passion" easily passed the weekend's No. 2 flick, "50 First Dates" at $88.7 million, as the year's top-grossing film.
Once considered a niche film that would appeal mainly to conservative Christians, the bloody chronicle of Christ's crucifixion swelled to blockbuster proportions as Gibson rallied church groups to support it and accusations of anti-Semitism brought mainstream attention.
"It's an event movie," said Bruce Davey, Gibson's partner in his film company Icon Productions. "It all began with the grass-roots campaign we started, but the controversy has obviously helped in creating awareness."
Some Jewish and Christian leaders have said they fear "The Passion" will revive the notion that Jews collectively were responsible for Christ's death.
Gibson has denied such accusations, and key cast members including Jim Caviezel, who plays Christ, and Maia Morgenstern, a Jewish actress who plays Mary said Gibson approached the film with great respect for Judaic traditions.
Gibson put up the movie's $25 million budget and will reap most of the returns. Hollywood studios passed on the movie, so Gibson put it in theaters through independent distributor Newmarket Films, which will get a cut of Gibson's profits.
"The Passion" provided a box-office jolt for theaters, whose ticket sales were running 7 percent behind last year's. After four straight weekends of declining revenue, the top 12 movies took in $132.1 million, up 53 percent from the same weekend a year ago.
"The Passion" took in more money than the rest of the top 12 combined, with other new movies making barely a ripple.
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'Lord of the Rings' Sweeps Oscars Monday March 1 12:46 AM ET
The epic journey of a raggedy gang of humans, hobbits, wizards, dwarves and elves hoisted the fantasy genre to Oscar glory Sunday as "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" won a record-tying 11 Oscars, sweeping every category in which it was nominated, including best picture.
The directing Oscar went to Peter Jackson, overlord of arguably the biggest undertaking in cinema history, the simultaneous filming of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth trilogy: "The Fellowship of the Ring," "The Two Towers" and "The Return of the King."
"I'm so honored and relieved that the academy and the members of the academy that have supported us have seen past the trolls and the wizards and the hobbits in recognizing fantasy this year," said Jackson, who just a few years ago was an obscure New Zealander known mainly for one admired art-house film ("Heavenly Creatures"), a run-of-the-mill Hollywood horror tale ("The Frighteners") and a scattering of cult splatter flicks ("Bad Taste," and "Meet the Feebles").
"Return of the King" matched the record 11 Oscar wins of "Titanic" and "Ben-Hur" and became only the third movie to sweep every category in which it was nominated, following "Gigi" and "The Last Emperor," which both went nine-for-nine.
"Return of the King" also won for song, musical score, visual effects, editing, makeup, art direction, costume design and sound mixing.
Only a handful of fantasy films have been nominated for the top Oscar "The Fellowship of the Ring" and "The Two Towers" among them but none had won until now.
At best the genre was viewed as high camp, not the stuff of Oscars, which usually go to grand dramas with their feet firmly planted in recognizable reality.
The people behind "The Lord of the Rings" changed that, approaching Tolkien's mythical realm with dead seriousness. Jackson sought three-dimensional humanity all around compassion, nobility and self-doubt in heroic hobbit Frodo (Elijah Wood), wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and human Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), covetousness and Shakespearean malice in villains Saruman (Christopher Lee) and Gollum (a computer-generated creature voiced by Andy Serkis).
Audiences received Jackson's fantastical creation with equal seriousness, with global ticket sales of $2.8 billion for the three films. "Return of the King" has topped $1 billion alone, the No. 2 box-office draw behind "Titanic" at $1.8 billion.
Jackson labored for seven years to adapt Tolkien's trilogy first persuading Hollywood bankers to stake him to the tune of $300 million, then marshaling a cast and crew of 2,000 to shoot the three films and land them in theaters just a year apart.
The result was a 9 1/2-hour saga more than 11 hours once all three extended home-video versions are available that seamlessly blended live action and computer animation. Real actors credibly shared the screen with flying beasts, hulking trolls, and walking, talking "tree shepherds."
Other "Return of the King" winners included composer Howard Shore, who took his second Oscar for writing "Lord of the Rings" music, having won two years ago on Part 1 of the saga, "The Fellowship of the Ring."
"Into the West," the wistful tune of farewell from "Return of the King," won the best-song Oscar. The song was written by Fran Walsh, the film's co-screenwriter; Howard Shore, its music composer; and Annie Lennox, who sings the tune.
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