"NEW YORK (AFP) - 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."
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"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 "
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"By the end of Thursday, it should also become the highest-grossing Christian movie in recent memory. The current champion, "Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie," grossed a modest 25.6 million dollars in its entire run."
Entire Article:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040226/ts_alt_afp/lifestyle_us_film_040226184925
I think there might be some misunderstanding regarding the discussion on box office stats.
My point is that if the movie makes no money, it means nobody saw it. If nobody saw it, then it can have the greatest message ever, but it won't matter... because they failed to deliver the message to an audience.
In round numbers, if it does $50 million in the first five days, that means that over a million people a day are seeing the film.
Another thing you can expect is to see more big budget mainstream religious films if these numbers continue to hold. That the only other competition for this film was a movie of "VeggieTales" speaks volumes on this point.