"Passion" Blesses Box Office

The Passion of the Christ really nailed it.

Mel Gibson's tough-love Jesus movie earned an ascendant $83.8 million over the three-day weekend, according to final figures released Monday, making the independently financed and released movie the best ever February opener and the sixth biggest opener of all time, on a list headed by Spider-Man's $114.8 million last May. (Hannibal was the previous February champ with $58 million over its opening weekend in 2001.)

Since it officially debuted last Wednesday with $23.5 million, the Newmarket release, directed, cowritten and bankrolled (for $25 million) by Gibson and starring Jim Caviezel in the title role, has earned $125.2 million, making it the first movie this year to cross the $100 million threshold.

The Passion racked up the second best five-day total for a movie opening on a Wednesday, beating Star Wars: Episode I--The Phantom Menace, which made $105.6 million, and trailing only The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which grabbed $124.1 million. It is also the second most successful R-rated opener, only trailing The Matrix Reloaded (which ranks second on the all-time best list), with $91.7 million.

On more than 4,000 screens at 3,043 theaters, Gibson's violent and controversial movie averaged a huge $27,554 per site. Its weakest day was Thursday, with $14.8 million, its strongest, Saturday, with $33.1 million. The Passion defied the odds, not just for a movie of its grim seriousness, but for a time of year notoriously slow at the box office.

"The grassroots marketing, the huge amount of press coverage devoted to the film, the controversy, the Mel Gibson factor--that all conspired to create this incredible opening weekend," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations, the company that tallies the studios' grosses.

"Obviously we are very well pleased," said Bruce Davey of Gibson's Icon Productions. "Fifteen months ago we started the grassroots campaign for this movie and the whole effort was to expose the film to church leaders, to get their support. That has obviously worked and has been the backbone of the launch." He also acknowledged that the ensuing mass media attention had "not hindered" business.

Bob Berney, president of Newmarket, reporting the preliminary figures Sunday morning (on a day when his company's Monster would win an Oscar for Charlize Theron), said the film was playing to "a broad demographic," all across the country in both urban centers and rural communities, successful way, way beyond just the Bible Belt, which Industry analysts had initially considered its best hope. The Passion is already attracting repeat business, a necessary ingredient for a true blockbuster.

Three new openings went virtually unnoticed amid all the Jesus Christ's superstar showing.

The most successful was Twisted, yet another thriller in which Ashley Judd is imperiled, this time as a cop with a thing for men who just might be serial killers. The R-rated Paramount release could only muster $8.9 million in third place, where it averaged a scanty $3,294 per 2,703 sites.

Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights tripped in at fifth with just $5.8 million. The PG-13 Lions Gate release, a prequel of sorts to the Patrick Swayze-Jennifer Grey '80s smash, this time with the hip-swinging action taking place in Cuba, sashayed into 2,042 sites and averaged only $2,846 per.

The final new entry, Broken Lizard's Club Dread, a spoof about a killer rampage at a beach resort, slithered in at number 10 with $3 million. At 1,807 sites, the R-rated Fox Searchlight release averaged $1,854.

The arrival of Gibson's bloody drama pushed Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler's déjà-vu comedy 50 First Dates down to second place, where it earned $12.6 million. Dropping 162 locations, to play on in 3,450 sites, the PG-13 Sony release fell off only 38 percent, averaging $3,642. It has now earned $88.7 million in three weeks.

In limited release Sony Pictures Classic's R-rated Goodbye, Lenin, a favorably reviewed comedy set around the fall of the Berlin Wall, cemented a positive $57,968, from an $9,661 average at just six sites.

No Oscar-nominated films were playing in the top 10. The highest ranked of the bunch was The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which hauled in $2.2 million in 11th place to push its 11-week gross to $364.1 million.

Overall, the top 12 movies made a combined $139.7 million, up a miraculous 87 percent from last weekend and 62 percent above this time last year, when audience's top choice was the hip-hop/kung-fu action flick Cradle 2 the Grave.

Here are the top 10 movies based on final studio figures compiled by Exhibitor Relations:

1. The Passion of the Christ, $83.8 million
2. 50 First Dates, $12.6 million
3. Twisted, $8.9 million
4. Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, $6.3 million
5. Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, $5.8 million
6. Miracle, $4.5 million
7. Eurotrip, $4.1 million
8. Welcome to Mooseport, $3.3 million
9. Barbershop 2: Back in Business, $3.1 million
10. Broken Lizard's Club Dread, $3 million

(Originally published Feb. 29, 2004 at 3:25 p.m. PT.)