A Passion-ate Box Office Performance?

[BuDi]

btw. The Passion's budget is reported between $25 million and $30 million.

[Jake]

that's very little

btw, it has claimed its first victim, a woman in Kansas died of a heart attack during Jesus' crucifixion...I guess she didn't expect that ending

BIG SPOILER...Jesus DIES!!!...oops...forgot the spoiler

lol, in NYC Jews dressed up in concentration camp uniforms and started dancing in front of movie theaters claiming the movie would bring on the next holocaust...what a great city I live in...where else would you see weird **** like that?

[streetpreacher]

Originally posted by Jake
BIG SPOILER...Jesus DIES!!!...oops...forgot the spoiler

great, now you totally destroyed it for me,
this calls for revenge: the titanic sinks and jfk gets shot!


from boxofficemojo newsletter:
'The Passion of the Christ' official Wednesday tally: $26,556,573


:big grin: biggest wednesday opening ever for a non sequel

[editman]

(Okay, I'll waste it on you. )

Originally posted by carl
(Ben-Hur) is seriously considered religious because some film maker remains adamant that a few shots of the back of somebodies head makes his film "A tale of the Christ"? Hate it, IMHO it's one of the worst films ever to get credit as a masterpiece. Not worst as in, I respect it but it bores me, as in 2001, but worst as in bad film making and an attrotious "Best Actor" winning performance from Mr. Chisel Jaw!!!

Mate, if Ben-Hur bored ya, wait till you see 'Cleoplatra'.

At least for an 'old-time' epic, 'Ben-Hur' is watchable.

Not to mention its technical merit, this is one of the first widescreen films ever made and you can't deny the fact that the chariot scene IS spectacular, especially on a giant theatre screen.

[enkydu]

I've talked to several people who saw the film on Wednesday. They said it was excellent...but they liked the book better

[enkydu]

I guess I was way off when I initially compared this movie's box office potential to Mystic River and School of Rock.

It made $14.7M its second day and $23M its third. That means that after three days it's performing 8% better than Two Towers! That's insane.

Compare these two pages at boxofficemojo:
Passion and Two Towers
Passion is currently ahead of Two Towers which made $102M in its first 5 days. It broke $200M in 12 days.

Could Passion actually do that? Are we looking at the biggest box office draw of 2004?

I think blugh's sneaky suspicion may have been correct. Wow!

[streetpreacher]

according to boxofficemojo, the passion made 32 million $ on saturday , about 75 million $ over the weekend and now already 117 million $ since it started

[enkydu]

An AP story summing up this week's Passion stated,

"The film played strongly among all age and ethnic groups and in every region of the country, especially in some Bible belt and heartland cities such as Dallas, Houston and Oklahoma City, said Rob Schwartz, head of distribution for Newmarket. Gibson hired the independent outfit to put "The Passion" in theaters after Hollywood studios shied away.

"The Passion" ultimately could take in between $300 million and $350 million in the United States and Canada alone, Schwartz said. "

Check out boxofficemojo's ROTK/TPM/Passion chart here

Looks like this might be the greatest thing since sliced bread. I haven't seen it yet so I can say one way or the other. But one's thing for certain: Mel's making a butt-load of dough.

That's cool. I'd rather have a movie like this make tons of money than something that simply takes advantage of (and promotes_ our society's decadence.

Click here for full story.

[streetpreacher]

ROFL, this is hilarious:

"ROME, Ga. (AP) - Tickets at one movie theater screening Mel Gibson's ``The Passion of the Christ'' are being deemed decidedly unholy.

The number 666, which many Christians recognize as the ``mark of the beast,'' is appearing on movie tickets for Gibson's film at a Georgia theater, drawing complaints from some moviegoers.

The machine that prints tickets assigned the number 666 as a prefix on all the tickets for the film, said Gary Smith, owner of the Movies at Berry Square in northwest Georgia. The 666 begins a series of numbers that are listed below the name of the movie, the date, time and price.

``It's from our computer and it's absolutely a coincidence,'' Smith said. ``It has nothing to do with the film company or any vendor. It's completely in our computer.''

In the Bible, the book of Revelation says 666 is the ``number of the beast,'' usually interpreted as Satan or the Antichrist.

Several patrons have made comments about the numbers, and one person who was uncomfortable having 666 on her ticket asked for a pass to be substituted for a ticket.

``A lot of people have asked what the numbers mean, some said it seemed odd, some said it was inappropriate,'' said theater employee Erica Diaz.

The movie, which opened Wednesday, is a bloody depiction of Christ's final hours and crucifixion."

[BuDi]

Director Mel Gibson could personally earn more than $300m from The Passion of the Christ, according to respected US financial experts Forbes.

After five days in the US the film has taken $125.2m - and could go on to make $650m worldwide, Forbes said, citing industry experts.

The magazine's website said Gibson's company Icon had spent $30m on production and $15m on marketing.

It said he could take up to half of the gross, plus a cut of merchandising.


The film has been screened in churches in the US

Forbes said Gibson would receive a portion of the sales of Passion merchandise such as mugs and nail pendants. It said the Christian retail market was worth an estimated $4.2bn.

Motive Entertainment president Paul Lauer, who led the marketing of the film, said he had teamed up with Christian retailing veterans, Forbes reported.

It said the movie could sell another eight million copies on DVD and video on its release in summer - earning Gibson $75m.


'Graphic violence'

Gibson had been on Forbes' prestigious Celebrity 100 list in 2001 and 2002, but fell off last year. The company said he would be certain to return this year.

His film, which critics have accused of being anti-Semitic and graphically violent, follows the last 12 hours of Christ's life. Gibson has denied anti-Semitism.

Director Steven Spielberg, who is Jewish, refused to comment on the suggestions.

"I think it's much too important, and I'm really too smart to answer a question like that," he said.

He said he had not yet seen the film. "When I do see the film, the first person who will hear from me will be Mel Gibson."

In the US it had the third-best five-day opening of any film, beating blockbusters such as The Return of the King and Finding Nemo.

[ZUBi]

about this 'show me the sign' 666 \m/ thing

"Woe to you, Oh Earth and Sea, for the Devil sends the
beast with wrath, because he knows the time is short...
Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the
beast for it is a human number, its number is Six hundred and
sixty six."

Revelations Ch. XIII v.18

that's how begins one of the best Iron Maiden songs...

[streetpreacher]

passion made about 14 million $ on friday,
starsky and hutch made about 10 million $
and monster had an unbelievable oscar boost and made 6 million $ ...
edit: ... lol, which seems to be a typo, since it made 600.000 according to boxofficemojo

[editman]

LOL... six hundred grant vs six hundred... that's a lot of difference...

[enkydu]

It's official: this movie is HUGE.

After 12 days of release it's #48 on the all-time US domestic gross (see here)
And it's tracking with some of the biggest movies of all time (see here)

Who would have thought that a movie that 6 months ago was struggling to find a distributer would be this big?