'Da Vinci Code' opens with estimated $29 million

CNN ^ | 5/20/06 | AP

[Aquinasfan]

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- "The Da Vinci Code" banked an estimated $29 million at the box office on its first day in theaters, an industry official said Saturday, positioning the film to turn in the strongest opening weekend for any movie this year.

[Candor7]

LOL.

Fast Food, Fast Cars, and Fast Spirituality!

[maine-iac7]

Absolutely none of the above. It is a desire to fight against misinformation that is presented as fact to millions and millions of people.

LOL

Seems like there's a paradox in there - It just may be "a desire to fight against misinformation that is presented as fact to millions and millions of people." but not the way you mean it... :o)

Truth can stand the LIGHT of day = and God's son's are daughter's are equal in His sight - Jesus said "...you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32

nothing stays hidden forever

[Candor7]

I am joking. I am not serious. Don't worry, Christianity is safe.

True, but your sense of humor points to a rather similar attitude to mine, of tongue in cheek to organized religion, and I am delighted naturally, Freepers are such a varied and interesting collective.

[TET1968]

I predict DVD sales will be minimal.
If they are going to make money, they have to do it at the box office.
Netflix may get a surge of requests the first few days after the release but then, so did Pluto Nash.

[Candor7]

Arose Codex is a code for getting up in the morning , mine includes two cups of very strong coffee.

Just joking! there is a picture of one in post number 13, with liitle dials which when aligned open by sliding a cylinder out. Leonardo Davinci is said to have invented them.

[DJ MacWoW]

But we wouldn't want folk to study the early Gnostics who were closer to the early - were - the early followers

What is a Gnostic

The difficulty in defining Gnosticism is not entirely of recent origin. As early as 1910, a small book was published in London that in many ways foreshadowed current trends, including the difficulties in definition. The title of the work was Gnosticism: The Coming Apostasy; the author, a certain D.M. Panton, was an anxious defender of Christian orthodoxy, which he felt was menaced by an emerging Gnostic revival. Gnosticism, Panton wrote, had surfaced in the twentieth century in the forms of Theosophy, Christian Science, some forms of spiritualism, and in what was called the "New Theology," which had been introduced primarily by German writers on religion. (A biography of Marcion by theologian Adolf von Harnack created much interest and controversy at that time.) While earlier crypto-Gnostics, such as Emanuel Swedenborg, William Blake, George Fox, and Elias Hicks camouflaged their heretical beliefs, Panton argued, twentieth-century Gnostics no longer bothered with concealment. The gnosticizing movements of the early twentieth century, wrote Panton, were "frankly and jubilantly Gnostic"; their thought and their movements carried within them the "throbbing heart of Gnosticism, perhaps the most dreaded foe the Christian faith ever confronted."

In some ways Panton's anti-Gnostic tirades have an advantage over much of the more recent literature, for Panton still possessed a clear understanding of what constitutes Gnosticism. Such is not the case today. If we contrast these early-twentieth-century analyses with some current ones, we may recognize how unclear our understanding has become.

[mom4kittys]

Is this something in the movie or something you have? I am so confused--I don't know a whole lot about this movie or book.
All I know is that it tries to poke holes in of the catholic faith by saying Jesus was married to Mary Magdelene and something about descendants. Where do the codes come in?

[maine-iac7]

became a Dan Brownite member in the Church of Dan Brown.

for the umpteenth time _ why is everyone both vilifying and crediting Brown with these "ideas"?

He simply took the 'ideas' that have been around for 2000 years - and from CURRENT publications - NON-fiction with extensive biblios - and used them as a springboard for a NOVEL: "a fictional prose work with a relatively long and often complex plot, "

Is it that so few folk today read NON-fiction or is it that it is hoped that by keeping the focus on the fiction story it may deflect from people discovering the NON-fictional (like in historical and factual) accounts of the "ideas" being credited to Brown?

For those who want to know where Brown got "his" ideas, a good place to start is a book that first gave Brown the impetus to explore further - a book by a lifelong Catholic with an impressive background, who set out to disprove the Mary Magdalene/Jesus marriage story. It was her first book on the subject: "The Woman With the Alabaster Jar" - published looonnng before the DC.

For those qwho already know all the facts );o) don't look at the following:

Margaret Starbird's web sight - scroll down to her bio first -

http://www.margaretstarbird.net/

and for heavens sake, don't read any of Sir Laurence Gardner's books or the many others now in print on these 'ideas' that will come up in Amazon.com, for one.

And close your eyes now, I'm going to post a photo of a stained glass window in a European church - been there long before Brown was born:

[ecurbh]

Fox reporting a $78 million gross so far. I can't remember if this was US only or internationally.

Current estimates are $77 million domestic, $224 million worldwide. Not too shabby.

[maine-iac7]

. If you think a fictional movie history of events for subjugation can not be used as a powerful propagation tool, you are sorely mistaken.

[maine-iac7]

I saw the movie last night and didn't percieve it as a slander on Christ at all. It does definitely paint the Catholic Church in a bad light, however.

Bingo

[maine-iac7]

Oh, yeah, that'd be just great....are you nuts? There are people in those theaters you just wished to burn down. Fortunately, no such thing will happen. I'm sure you'll be disappointed.

The kind of people who would've been at the stakes with torches are still with us. Always will be.

We are fortunate to live in a country where marshmallowing humans on the stake is outlawed.

The spirit of the Inquisitors lives on

[maine-iac7]

It will self-destruct

looks like it's too late for this wish

[maine-iac7]

professional victims

I gotta remember that - it's perfect.

[maine-iac7]

Ron Howard flop

Hmmm - it's setting box office records = guess the campaign, including the biased, orchestrated, reviews didn't work...

How is a record breaker a "flop"?

_{purely rhetorical question...}

[maine-iac7]

I think the net impact of the book and movie are positive for Christianity

bingo

[Sans-Culotte]

It changed me from being a Christian to "undecided"!

Then you were never a Christian.

One good thing about this book and movie: it reveals that many so-called Christians are no such thing. When we see polls that say things like "70% identify themselves as Christians", we must remember that many of those people do not believe even the most basic Christian doctrines. Many simply think "this guy Jesus was a pretty cool dude". These are the "Christians" who open the door to feminism/goddess worship, gay marriage, etc.

IMO, The Da Vinci Code is revealing the fifth columnists in our midst.

[DJ MacWoW]

The spirit of the Inquisitors lives on

Very melodramatic. Unless you were referring to the Muslim riots? Christians rebut falsehoods verbally.

[sgtbono2002]

I m not worried one wit about their souls. They deserve to rot in hell.

[maine-iac7]

His theories

Good grief. These are not Brown's ideas or theories...he merely took the ideas and stories that have been around for 2000 years - ahh,not to mention all the CURRENT NON-fiction books with long biblios on these 'ideas' - that no one seems to have a problem with.

rather amusing that no one is objecting to these NON-fiction books (the ones that gave Brown his impetus for a NOVEL).......so buy into, and spread, the LIE that Brown is the author of these ideas.