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The book has been on the best seller list for years in hardcover.

It is unlikely that whatever impact it has had is likely to be reflected in poor attendance for the upcoming film.

I was given the book as a present something like 3 Christmases ago. I thought it was stupid and likely just a passing phenomenon. Years later I am still astonished at it's popularity.

The movie will do well, and I'll never understand exactly why.

The movie will do well, and I'll never understand exactly why.

I read the book. I found it mildly entertaining, and a fair work of fiction, but I cannot see how the format of the story line would translate very well into a motion picture. Seems to me it would look something like "National Treasure", which was also B.S. and IMO a lousy movie.

If it does well at the box office, and I suspect it will, it will be because of the controversy around it. Nobody read Satanic Verses, until the Iranians put out a contract on the author, then it becomes a best seller.

The movie will do well, and I'll never understand exactly why.

Hehehehe...In my own little humble opinion, the book was popular because it treated a controversial subject in such a "matter of fact" way.

Dan Brown doesn't bop you over the head with the idea that Christ was married. He broaches the subject with an unassuming subtlety. When the Langdon character first mentions it to Sophie, it's kinda like, "Pssst...this is a little secret that only educated people know." And Sophie, thinking she's as educated as Langdon, bites on it. The reader then feels like they are educated because now they know the secret. But it's not super-secret. It's just something that the "better off" know. And they take it as, (excuse the pun) gospel.

A work like "The Last Temptation of Christ" beat you over the head with its "scandalous" tale. Reviewer and reviewer, churches, the main stream media, pounded into the public the crux of "The Last Temptation of Christ". "The Da Vinci Code" touching on a very similar doctrine, used subtlety very well. Now I don't know if that was ever planned from the PR dept. of the publisher, or if it just happened. Seeing the posters and trailers for the movie, it looks like it was well planned.

And the book is a quick read. It's not hard to get into. It's very linear. Actually the producers of "24" wanted the TV rights to the book because they thought they could do a real-time mini-series a la "24". Dan Brown wanted a major motion picture, not TV series so he didn't sell to that producer (I believe it was Brian Grazer). Ironic thing -- Ron Howard bought the movie rights, he's an executive producer of "24", and Brian Grazer works closely with Ron Howard on a lot of Ron Howard's productions.

So you combine this subtlety of being "let it on a secret", a fast read, a "scandalous tale", and the fact that people created a fascination by being against it, you've got a best seller. Which created more people saying that it should be burned. Which increases the fascination. Voila. A best seller for three years.

Sprinkle in Ron Howard, Tom Hanks, some snazzy special effects. Poof -- $300 million movie.

.....The book has been on the best seller list for years in hardcover.......
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The movie will do well, and I'll never understand exactly why................

I think that the book was shallow, and the chapter layout and tension, was written to be sold to a movie studio.

The film will do extremely well

I'm not sure why there's so much debate from the Catholic masses about this novel..

Surely, Catholics must know that the local church officials- and the Vatican - was sucking wealth out of every hamlet for the benefit of the Pope, etc., all in the name of Christ, so why the current outrage about a novel mentioning Mary Magdelene????