Moviegoers show their Passion
2004-03-07 22:21
Los Angeles - Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ took in $51.4m in its second weekend to remain the top movie, racing past the $200m mark in just 12 days.
Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson's action comedy Starsky & Hutch debuted in second place with $29.05m, while Viggo Mortensen's horse-racing adventure Hidalgo opened at No 3 with $19.6m, according to studio estimates on Sunday.
The Passion, Gibson's bloody re-enactment of Christ's crucifixion, has grossed $212m so far in the United States and Canada. The movie is expected to top $300m, said Bob Berney, president of Newmarket Films. The independent distributor was hired by Gibson to release The Passion after Hollywood studios passed on it.
The film, which stars Jim Caviezel as Christ, held up strongly, with receipts down just 39% from its huge opening weekend of $83.8m. Movies debuting to such high numbers often drop 50% or more in their second weekends.
The Passion propelled Hollywood to a second straight weekend of rising revenues after a prolonged slump. The top 12 movies grossed $131.5m, up 39% from the same weekend last year.
Before The Passion opened, box-office revenues had been running 7% behind last year's. Two big weekends for The Passion have pulled the industry virtually even with last year's receipts, according to box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.
The Academy Awards gave a solid bounce to best-picture winner The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which climbed back into the top 10 with $3.2m, raising its total to $368.3m.
The Passion rode a storm of debate over its grisly violence and accusations of anti-Semitism to become the first religious blockbuster since the 1950s epics The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur.
Its success indicates Christian crowds rarely targeted by filmmakers will flock to theaters when a movie suits them.
"I think it does show there's an ignored market, but the way I look at it, it's film by film. To make this work, you have to have a brilliant film. The audience is very discerning," Berney said.
In the next week, The Passion will climb past the $228m total take for Signs, the top-grossing movie Gibson has been connected with. Even adjusting Gibson's Lethal Weapon grosses for inflation, The Passion will be his biggest hit.
"Here's one of the most popular movie stars in the world. Who would have thought he would out-gross all his big summer blockbusters with a movie about the crucifixion?" said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations.
After studios declined to handle The Passion, Gibson orchestrated a marketing scheme that rallied Christian leaders and church groups, which spread the word and snapped up blocks of tickets.
Fuelling the frenzy was criticism from some Jewish and Christian leaders, who said The Passion could revive the notion that Jews collectively were responsible for Christ's death.
- AP