Gibson: On a win-win note

Los Angeles, Feb. 27 (Reuters): Blessed by intense media attention and a heavy Christian turnout, Mel Gibson’s controversial film The Passion of the Christ grossed well over $20 million on its first day in theatres, its distributor has said.

Released in 3,006 theatres in North America on Ash Wednesday, the dramatisation of the last 12 hours of Jesus’ life generated first-day business of nearly $26.6 million, according to Bob Berney, the president of privately-owned Newmarket Films.

But box office tracking service Exhibitor Relations Co. said Newmarket’s figure included $3 million in group sales for Monday’s and Tuesday’s preview screenings. By that reckoning, the $23.6 million posted for the film’s official first day ranks as the fifth-biggest Wednesday opening of all time, Exhibitor Relations said. That record, $34.4 million, is currently held by The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, followed by Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace ($28.5 million), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers ($26.2 million) and The Matrix Revolutions ($24.3 million).

In any case, The Passion has generated nearly as much in North American ticket sales as the $30 million Gibson personally invested in it, an impressive achievement for a film presented in Hebrew, Latin and Aramaic, with English subtitles. “I think it’s a phenomenon,” Berney said, claiming the film owed its commercial success to a mix of Gibson’s popularity and weeks of media coverage rivetted on controversy surrounding the film.