Passion set to be most profitable Bible story

NEW YORK: Mel Gibson’s deeply controversial movie ‘The Passion of the Christ’ has delivered on its hype, pulling in an estimated 20 million dollars on its opening day.

Religious fervour and intense media coverage saw people flock to the more than 4,600 screens showing the film on Ash Wednesday — the traditional Christian day of penance.

According to the analyst firm Box Office Mojo, opening-day receipts were expected to reach the high-teen millions, with a high-end forecast of 20 million dollars.

That would make ‘The Passion’ the biggest Wednesday gross ever for a movie opening outside the summer (May-August) or holiday (November-December) seasons, and it could rank number five among all Wednesday bows.

The record first-day haul for an off-peak-season movie release is 19.8 million dollars, set by ‘Hannibal’ in 2001.

Industry experts estimate that the film will take in more than 50 million dollars in its first five days in release, with some saying it could hit the 70 million mark.

‘The Passion’, which portrays Christ’s last 12 hours on Earth and was directed, produced and co-written by Gibson, has been condemned by some Jewish leaders for its potential to fuel anti-Semitism.

Other critics have highlighted the film’s violently graphic depiction of Christ’s punishment at the hands of the Romans and his eventual crucifixion.

One woman watching the film in Kansas suffered a fatal heart attack during the crucifixion scene.

The box office take is vindication for Gibson, who pumped 25 million dollars of his own money into the film and originally had enormous difficulty in trying to find a distributor. — AFP