March 15, 2004
By Jimmy Moore
Talon News

For the third week in a row, Mel Gibson's biblical portrayal of the last twelve hours of Jesus' life was the top movie in America.

"The Passion of the Christ" earned an estimated $31.7 million over the weekend beating out outspoken liberal Hollywood actor Johnny Depp's new movie "Secret Window," which earned an estimated $19 million.

This pushed the 19-day total of "The Passion of the Christ" to $264 million.

All-time box office records are continuing to fall since the film released to the public on February 25.

The movie surpassed Gibson's "Signs" last week as the highest-grossing film that he has either acted or directed in.

The $31.7 million for the film this weekend was the fifth-highest third week total sales in box office history behind "Spiderman," "Titanic," "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace," and "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets."

"The Passion of the Christ" is now the second highest-grossing rated-R film of all time. The movie will likely move to the top of the list this week, passing the $281.6 million earned by "The Matrix Reloaded."

The movie has climbed to the 23rd all-time grossing film just behind "Shrek." It is on pace to enter the top ten films of all time in the next few weeks.

Movie experts say the film will likely see a huge surge in popularity as the Easter holiday approaches, pushing box office totals into unprecedented territory for a film with a Christian theme and English subtitles.

Despite charges by critics that the film will be short lived because of the religious content, movie analysts say the movie is drawing a large mainstream audience in addition to Christians.

Boxofficemojo.com president Brandon Gray says "'The Passion' is the Savior of 2004" in what has been a "ho-hum" year for movies.

"Any time a picture does this kind of business, everyone is seeing it," Gray concluded.

Although the movie cost around $30 million to make, estimates show that Gibson's Icon Productions and his distributor Newmarket Films stand to make at least $300 million in profits from the theater run alone.

"The Passion of the Christ" is expected to have a first run print of 22 million DVDs and videos, according to Adams Media Research. This is equivalent to the first "Harry Potter" movie and "Shrek." No release date has been set for the movie's release on DVD.

Additionally, "The Passion of the Christ" is now expected to be an even bigger hit than last year's top movie, "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," which recently won 11 Oscars and earned $368.9 million during its theater run.

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