The Passion of Christ rules the Box Office

I never imagined this. Yeah, I knew Meg Gibson’s new “The Passion of Christ” film would be #1 at the box office this weekend, but I could have NEVER predicted the success it had. It made $76 million on it’s opening weekend!?!?! That beats “Return of the King” for goodness sake! The folloing is from Yahoo News:

“The Passion of the Christ,” Director Mel Gibson’s controversial labor of love about the last 12 hours of Christ’s life, nailed the No. 1 spot at the box office with weekend ticket sales of $76.2 million, officials said on Sunday. Since opening Wednesday, and including sales from advance screenings the prior two days, the film has grossed $117.5 million, the second-best tally ever for a Wednesday release, behind only last year’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” with $124.1 million.

However, the Friday-to-Sunday sum for “Passion” beat the equivalent three-day haul for “The Return of the King” of $72.7 million.

Wow. Good on ya Mel. You rolled the dice, took a chance, put up your own money to make it, and now you get to reap the rewards. Good for you.

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88 thoughts on “The Passion of Christ rules the Box Office

  1. I wonder if Troy ever considers why sometimes the word ‘to’ is also spelled ‘too’ – does he think it’s random?
    I wonder why I strongly suspect that Troy is a virgin.
    I wonder why the fact that Troy is from Texas just seems right somehow.
    And I wonder if I’m turning into an elitist ass.

  2. Hey Troy, how funny is this: you’re banned.

    What you don’t seem to understand is that this place is meant to function as a community, a place where people come to have conversations about things they have in common. You are obviously either completely uninterested in, or incapable of, having an actual conversation with people so there’s no point in you being here. Conversation means listening to other people’s points and acknowledging / engaging with what they have to say to you. It involves showing a certain amount of respect for other people’s opinions, which is something that you have NEVER done. We have been more than patient with you and have explained this over and over again and still you do nothing but insult the community that is in place here.

    I’m tired of explaining this to you over and over again and so I’m just banning you. Any further posts from you will be deleted without being read.

  3. Its fun messing with yall and you want me to learn to spell right and puncuate noway im having to much fun as long as people keep reacting they way they do then ill keep on doing what i do this is just to funny.

  4. blah blah blah blah yall whine to much the first person who comes in here and has an opinion you want to get on there case no wonder Jesus calls us sheep the dumbest of all animals yall sure have proved that point in the bible.

  5. Troy, I’m also a Christian. While I’ll admit I’ve made a few jokes on other threads I’ve never attacked people like you’ve done here. The truth is there’s room for disagreement. You can’t quote bible verses to people who don’t believe in the bible. You’ve been using this board to preach a message, how about start by just getting to know people and giving them the benefit of the doubt.

    Ever hear of a book called “How to win friends and influence people”? There’s an order to things. If you want to change somebody’s mind, you have to know and care about what they think first.

    My goal here, personally is to just enjoy reading and discussing with others who love movies as much (or sometimes more) than I do. If I influence anyone by the nature of my posts, great.

    If you have a message to get accross you need to live it first. That means if someone takes potshots at you (which I don’t think anyone’s even done here), you take it like a man and respond with mercy.

    Let me end this post with a quote from St. Francis of Assisi: “Preach the gospel at all times and, when necessary, use words”

  6. I really didn’t want to get pulled into this. I regret now that I ever posted on this thread again. And I know I will regret posting further in this feeble effort to mend my shattered ego thanks to your tremendous shellacking and assault on my character. It will probably only make you angrier and more illeterate.

    Look. I am here on this site because I love movies. And this is a forum for movie lovers and haters. After all these months I still love movies and I love talking about movies with other movie lovers and haters on this site.

    You on the other hand – All you have accomplished is coming off like a fundamentalist crackpot. You’re not reaching the masses with your rants on this site. Once readers have looked at your pulpit purges they skip to the next post. This isn’t a forum for religious zealots. We’ve been through this once already with you Troy. I equate your rants with the same effectiveness of a Christian T-Shirt. Everyone notices you but all they are doing is pointing and laughing.

    I have not doubt of your zeal and passion for Christ. I can see that through all your banter. But I am having a heck of a time calling you a brother at the same time. I can only hope that your efforts to further the Kingdom out there in the world aren’t of the same militant ilk as on this site.

    But I regress. I’ve said this and much more to you before. I know where I stand and where my heart is. I take comfort in that.

  7. Allow me to interject.

    Troy. You seem to be confused why people are mad at you. Let me show you why…

    You have said:
    – “thanks for judging me kungfuguy im sure that makes you a real man now”
    – “kungfuguy, does GETALIFE mean anything”
    – “this is sad you guys, really get a life please”
    – “And G, while your at it get a name not a letter”
    – “and you talk about me being stupid. lol”

    Troy, people are mad at you because you are ignorant. If you are smart, you’ll already know that slinging insults at people while telling them that “God is Love” is pretty stupid.

    Set an example, then start talking.

    For for the record, “G” is his first initial – of HIS NAME. Speaking of judging, I refer you to your first insult in the list.

  8. Ok this is just to funny i see that G is also been here for a long time ok do you guys have anything else to do except to badger me and curse this sad you guys really get a life please. And G while your at it get a name not a letter it says put a name not letter and you talk about me being stupid. lol

  9. Ok bubba gave his reason for being here kungfuguy whats your reason for being here still after all these months i guess you are right kungfuguy things havent changed atleast not for you that is sad kungfuguy does GETALIFE mean anything see kungfuguy how does it feel to have the tables turned people dont like to be judged like you did to me time for your own medicine.

  10. Why is everyone mad at me would it happen to be what i said is right maybe it is true that the truth will make people uncomfortable and that is all i am doing telling the truth. Dont hide from your sins people expose your sins and then you will finally be free follow in Jesus footsteps dont be like G and try to impress people by cursing you think you live on this world forever wrong you dont and G i hate to tell you but you dont cant mock God you think you get away with stuff like that but you dont.

  11. Why is everyone mad at me would it happen to be what i said is right maybe it is true that the truth will make people uncomfortable and that is all i am doing telling the truth. Dont hide from your sins people expose your sins and then you will finally be free follow in Jesus footsteps dont be like G and try to impress people by cursing you think you live on this world forever wrong you dont and G i hate to tell you but you dont cant mock God you think you get away with stuff like that but you dont.

  12. Yeah things have changed i grown more in christ but thanks for judging me kungfuguy im sure that makes you a real man now. And also G you think cursing makes you all big and bad that just shows igonarance on your part shows that you cant get your point across in a civilized way good going G im sure your parents are proud of you now.

  13. Hey guess what do any of you get the chronicle news paper cause if you do on Aug 29 they will put the book of luke in every chronicle since The Passion of the christ is coming out on dvd Aug 31 im so excited this movie is coming out on video and dvd then we will have this movie for genarations to come and then we can show our kids and grand kids but this is the beginning later on more christian movies will come out and i know Mel Gibson will make another one i mean how could he not look at the success The Passion has had he would be stupid not to make another bible film. Even if you dont make another bible film Mel thankyou for making this one a film that is true to the scriptures and that touched millions of people everywhere and will keep touching millions of people when it comes to dvd and video. Can you imagine how many churches are going to have this film The Passion of the christ i bet when it comes out on dvd and video they wont be able to keep them on the shelf. No wonder people where trying to stop this movie from going to video and dvd this movie is going to touch peoples lives for a long time. And for those who dont think Jesus is real if He isnt real then how come people where trying really hard to stop this movie from going to theaters and now trying to stop it from going to dvd people dont get in an uproar when any other religion is brought to the theater but only when Jesus is mentioned people get mad there is a reason why cause people are ashamed of there sins and like to live in darkness and Jesus He is the light of the world and when He is mentioned it shows are sins and we dont like that we like living in sin and that is why we need Jesus to wash our sins away. People Jesus is real if He wasnt people also wouldnt be trying so hard to take Him out of our lives like they are now. We need to fight for what we believe in instead of being cowards isnt it sad we fight to protect endangered animals but wont fight to protect babies that are being killed everyday by pregnant women going and having abortians and women that are pregnant are actually taking a human life cause in the bible it says that God knows us before we are born but no we care more about endangered animals. Wake up people see the light.

  14. Bubba what do you do hang around here until someone writes your so funny bubba but i love you anyway man. See people we need to start showing love one to another you want to see a better world people show love one to another and i promise you will see a change.

  15. What i meant to say was when you turn on the news you will see violence there isnt one time i havent turned on the news and they not talk about someone being shot or killed. So people wake up look around you quit falling into the snare of the devil quit excepting his lies when will this world wake up i guess we wont until we have Jesus in our lives. Remember everyone believes in something i believe in Jesus the only one that can save you from your sins and from hell.

  16. Yeah and if we had more people that where fanatic like myself about Jesus we would see more love in this world then violence like we do today if you dont believe that there is alot of violence in the world then turn on the news i promise you that when you do turn on the news no people start waking up dont just sit there like a frog on a log. And let me leave you with this saying EVERYONE BELIEVES IN SOMETHING I BELIEVE IN JESUS.

  17. Bubba, I like the way you’ve managed yourself to remain calm throughout the posts.
    Natalie, it was very touching the way you expressed yourself. I may not agree with you in the belief system, yet the way you talked shows that you have a good heart, which at the end is what matters.
    Troy, dude: you’re a FANATIC!!! (no offense)

  18. Just because someone once upon a time posted a series of less-than-pleasant messages to John Campea regarding the Passion’s box office performance I just went and checked out this week’s numbers …

    According to Box Office Mojo The Passion has slid out of the Top 10 this week while netting a pretty tiny $247 per screen today. That in turn means that about 10 people showed up to each screening on a Friday, which is the busiest movie going day of the week. This in turn means that you can expect the Passion to be dropped from at least half of those screens in favor of more profitable films, of which there are plenty to choose from already in theaters with some big titles to follow in the next couple weeks. All of this with the Passion still about $10 million short of Return of the King’s domestic take. Not an impossible target, but suddenly very, very unlikely.

    The REALLY surprising numbers, though, are the overseas ones … the IMDB tends to be a bit slow updating their international charts, but they’ve currently got the Passion sitting ranked 104th all time with $177 million – a mere $575 mil or so behind RotK. This one really, really surprised me … standard box office behavior is to do about double the business internationally of what you do in the US and The Passion is going to be hard pressed to do half. I really expected The Passion to do slightly better than the normal double up but it’s not going to come even remotely close … perhaps the disparitiy is the result of all the free press and pressure the film got domestically thanks to the religious right? It’s the only explanation I can think of …

    Anyway … crow anyone? Yummy.

  19. Thank you for the invite Bubba! :)

    Perhaps I’ll stop by every few days or so and see what’s goin on…and if you’d like, you are welcome to stop by my “corner of the world” as well…just click my username below my post! I’d welcome you all.

  20. I think there is several things about the movie that make it communicate in such a powerful way. I think we cant get away from the fact that this isnt fiction this is not madeup but it is reflective of what the gospels tell us actually occured. I think thats where alot of its power comes from because you can add nice music and moving images to people and they can register on a emotional level but they dont carry the power that they do when we know for a fact that this ishistoric reality and what we see played out in front of us is something that actually took place in history. You know Bravehearts motion picture it moved alot of people and people had an emotional reaction to it but did it change lives i dont think so why not cause its not based on an historical event that can transform a human beings eternal destiny its not based on the truth of what the gospel records that when we embrace it andwhen we meet Jesus personally transforms our entire life our entire way of thinking all of our relationships our priorities our thelocify our values and opens the door of heaven so there is power that comes with this film because it is based on actual historic truth.

  21. Ok people here is how i can say The Passion is life changing cause it has changed my life and here is how i can say it is more then a movie but an experience cause that is what it was for me and noone can argue with that. And that is right natalie it wasnt the movie that is changing people its the holy spirit in the movie that is changing lives and that is why its more then a movie cause of the power of the words behind the movie and i apoalgize for what i said to bubba your right i was wrong for what i said.

  22. Wow! I really was saddened when I read this “blog”. I came here for the box office info on the film as I have a community and a website where I have chosen to use some small space to highlight this film and its information etc..

    This movie, the movie itself, is NOT what is saving souls. This film carries the annointing of the Lord and the Holy Spirit into each theatre. People of all creeds, races and nations come and experience what is perhaps the most “real” portrayal of Christ’s sacrifice and the changes and responses that we are seeing are due to conviction of the Holy Spirit that is taking place within these spirits, souls and lives. Ultimately, it is the Lord who is reaching people…just like He reached Mel and prepared him with the vision for this film in light of the place that Mel found himself in his own life some 13 years ago.

    What saddens me most is to see people here just ripping each other’s flesh off through arguing and flaming in their posts!

    Ya know? One of the most poignant portions of the film for me was when Jesus was sitting at the last supper with His disciples and He spoke of love. Love your neighbor as yourself. It is the second greatest command as outlined by Jesus and yet it seems we’ve got two or three people here who are just ripping each other apart, adding insult to insult and not allowing the spirit of the message to shine or live through their words at all.

    Everyone has and will have their own experience with this film and I wouldn’t allow other’s responses to determine your own place either at the theartre or not at the theatre! If you want to see it, go see it and you don’t owe anyone an explanation or even the information that you have been or not been. God knows each heart and each life. He knows where we all stand! And when we find Him…our faith is not hingent on this film! No one NEEDS to see this film because anyone says so…if God calls you to go…then listen and go. If He doesn’t then that’s that!

    Ya know…no one is perfect, we all botch stuff up and ya know…we all get mad but there is no room for the battering with regards to such an annointed film as has occurred here. We totally damage the credibility of Christ in the lives of those who need him when we get so overzealous in our speaking that we get out ahead of what God would have us share and say and act out of our own accord and allow the Devil to come on in with the anger and frustration that is not ours to carry with regards to someone else’s put downs or lack of understanding because they do not walk the same path as we might or do. Again it comes down to compassion and a real understanding of God’s second commandment to us regarding loving thy neighbor! Jesus tells us..”if someone smacks you on the cheek, offer them the other one as well”…that does not imply that we should be anyone’s “trash can” or “stomping post” but it does imply the true humility of Christ and there is no other movie out there that expresses the humility and love and compassion and forgiveness as does The Passion.

    Ya know…God doesn’t condone the “attitudes” displayed here in the midst of this war! He really doesn’t and that’s Scriptural if you want to get right down the nuts and bolts of it! “Vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord” As believers…our war is not with flesh and blood!

    Stop hurting each other and heaping insults on your brothers in the name of the Lord…you are in the wrong for doing so and using the name of the Lord to justify such tummults warrants a pretty stiff penalty in the long run. We are sorely misgiven if we would choose to believe that taking this stance and continuing to argue would be what God is calling us to do because flat out…GOD WOULDN’T AND WON’T EVER DO THAT! WE ARE NOT TO SPEND OUR TIME TRASHING EACH OTHER, PUTTING DOWN OTHERS WITHIN THE BODY OF CHRIST OR THE LIKE!

    The best use of our time as Believers is to learn and then practice providing a true witness of the person of Jesus Christ! This is what will bring souls to the kingdom and ultimately bring His return…not this senseless kind of diabolical debate and mindless bickering! You’re being sorely deceived if your anger here is righteous…because it is not! Not when you define your fellow man, who simply displays a different opinion or thought than you, as stupid! Ya know…you just might be real surprised at who is standing next to you and who is not when you reach those pearly gates!

    Some things to ponder in the love and truth of the Lord!

  23. Mr. Gaeckler aka “troy”,

    Bubba is a screen name, it is not his real name.
    Bubba has been giving very valid points despite your immature remarks.

    You have done nothing but ignore and insult him.

    Knock it off or I’ll ban you. Got it?

  24. As a regular reader I suppose I qualify as a member of this online ‘community’, and as such feel like I have the right to ask that with the degree of baiting, personal attacks, and all-round inanity of troy’s posts, does there not come a point where we can just bar him? Granted, I can choose not to read him, but this thread has been dominating the dialogue here for a while, and one way or another, it should end. He (as with the rest of us of course) should be held accountable to some kind of decorum/standard of logic

  25. Woah. I’m sorry. Troy. You are way out of line!!! How dare you!!! How DARE you say what you just did about Bubba!!!
    And here’s the thing. Bubba has been nothing but graceful dealing with you and your fanboy ignorance over these posts.
    I’m especially saddened by what you have said in the last few posts. Take off your blinders. I’ll be praying for you.

  26. I wish someone would come on here that didnt sound like a hick bubba you keep on proving more and more why people call hicks dumb im starting to believe it myself now i mean you are proving people right.

  27. You see its useless to argue with people like bubba cause they like to live in sin and they will come up with any excuse to keep living in sin that is the way sin is it grabs ahold of you and make you a slave to it so when someone starts arguing with you about the bible just tell them how Jesus has changed your life then they wont be able to argue with you cause they wont know and that is how you reach people to Jesus but sharing how Jesus has made a difference in your life.

  28. Bubba your funny but with a name like bubba i would think you had to be funny cause im sure you get picked on alot but anyway people the Passion is at 355M wow awesome isnt it and the only movie that has done the numbers that the passion has done on the 7th weekend out was titantic it made around 30M on its 7th weekend out the passion will make around 20M for its 7th weekend out that is awesome lord is awesome so from now on im going to start giveing the lord praise instead of arguing with people like buba where it goes nowhere.

  29. Okay. Against my better judgement I’m going to recap the points that I’ve made in this thread, in order. If you pay close attention (i.e. actually read them) you’ll see that I’ve not once made any sort of value judgement on The Passion as a film. If you then go and read your own posts you’ll see that you’ve not once actually responded in any meaningful fashion to anything I’ve said thus far.

    1. Troy should punctuate more. And as a last minute addendum checking his spelling from time to time would make his posts much easier to read as well.

    2. Troy demonstrates a pretty hefty level of arrogance in judging other people’s spirituality or lack thereof based on posts to this board.

    3. Rabid fanaticism about the film has prevented me from going to see it. More particularly there is a good segment of the population that is unable to have any sort of meaningful conversation about it because they equate any criticism of the film or it’s marketing with criticism of God Himself and personally I don’t care to put the time into viewing a film that I can’t reasonably discuss with people afterwards.

    4. A like, or dislike of this film (or any other) has absolutely no bearing on a person’s spiritual standing.

    5. Good for Mel going out and risking his own money on a film that was a dodgy business proposition.

    6. Don’t make assumptions about who or what I am without having the info to back those assumptions up.

    7. Box office receipts have little to no relationship to the actual quality and lasting value of a film.

    8. The Passion’s high box office is due largely to a successful marketing campaign within the christian community (where the vast majority of it’s marketing took place).

    9. As a result of 8 the financial success of the film demonstrates only that the christian community is a viable marketing demographic. For what it’s worth Troy I agree with you that we’re going to see a whole bunch more christian themed films coming from major studios in the next while and this is the entire reason why: the film studios can make a lot of money from the christian market if the work the formula correctly. This is something that they’ve been aware of in the music industry for years – which is why all of the major christian music labels but one are owned by secular companies – but are just clueing into in the film industry now. There are lots of christians with lots of spendable cash and lots of studios are going to do whatever they can to seperate said cash from said christians.

    10. The christian community has to a large extent bought into the idea that they have some moral obligation to see and support the film financially, thus inflating the box office. This is where the comparisons to Scientologists buying Hubbards books en masse comes in.

    11. The christian subculture has bought into the idea that popularity equals validation and thus that the financial success of the film is somehow a morally good thing where I’m of the opinion that capitalism and morals have no business being in bed together whatsoever.

    12. Again I state that I’m happy Mel’s making some cash.

    13. Despite The Passion making an awful lot more money I think that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is by far the best film of the year and that Dead Man Walking is the best film specifically dealing with Christian redemption in recent years.

    14. I don’t care at all what film tops the box office chart for the year.

    15. I point out that Troy has completely ignored my comments about making unfounded assumptions about my beliefs.

    16. Not responding to Troy specifically here, but I point out that claims of Jesus ‘making life better here on earth’ are wildly over simplistic and have no relationship whatsoever with the recorded history of hundreds of thousands of christians who have suffered incredible things because of their faith.

    17. I ask if the split reaction we’re seeing (i.e. christian community near-uniformly positive, non-christian community with serious misgivings – I have yet to see someone who wasn’t obviously pro-christian post a positive comment about the film here, by the way.) is due in some part to Gibson narrowing the focus of the film so tightly that those who don’t already have significant background knowledge of the gospels are unable to set the events of the film into any sort of broader context.

    18. Again, I point out that Troy is making unfounded and flat out wrong assumptions about people he knows nothing about based on their opinion of a film.

    19. A brief summary of points made earlier.

    20. Equating the film’s financial success with some sort of moral ‘win’ is just silly.

    21. A healthy majority of the ticket sales are going to the existing christian community – i.e. the 400+ reserved screenings today in Canada alone are enough to push the film back to the #1 spot in this country without any other ticket sales and there’s not likely to be a single non-believer in any of those screenings.

    22. I find the idea that a film is going out there and ‘winning souls’ all on it’s lonesome to be silly.

    23. Again, Troy leaps to bad conclusions about people.

    24. A quick summary of my own background to demonstrate that your conclusions about me are, in fact, dead wrong and that I do actually know what I’m talking about when it comes to christian issues and theology.

    25. A restate of my opinion that the film is dominantly playing to the christian community – ie preaching to the choir.

    26. The film is not a ‘gospel’ film, something Gibson himself acknowledges in the title.

    27. A restate of the L Ron example.

    28. Troy’s behavior does not match the standard of his stated faith.

    29. Chill out.

    30. Read people’s posts before you respond to them.

    That’s 30 different issues raised. By my count you’ve responded to maybe two of them. To borrow a phrase put up or shut up, because this is starting to remind me waaaaaaay to much of Monty Python’s argument sketch. Your response to pretty much everything boils down to “well it’s making money so you’re dumb” which doesn’t really cut it.

  30. Hey Bubba, why don’t you bash your head on this wall. Well, thanks, don’t mind if I do. Thump, thump, thump.

    You haven’t heard a word I’ve said, have you?

  31. Well then you cant comment at all that really irritates me when people talk mess about the movie and dont even see it to judge it for yourself and what i have been saying about the film is true it is out grossing every movie out there so far and will outgross The Return of the king name one thing i said that isnt true you cant cause everything i have said is true.

  32. And you might want to make sure you read before you post Troy. I’ve been quite clear all along that I HAVEN’T seen the film and don’t intend to, largely because of all the “Jesus loves The Passion” silliness going on. This conversation included. That’s why I very specifically haven’t said anything about the film itself, only about scope, marketing, public response and your insistence on prizing the box office take above all else.

  33. Ah, Troy, Troy Troy … once again leaping to wildly bad conclusions. Once again assuming that if people disagree with you it must mean that a) you are somehow morally superior and b) that they can’t possibly be christians. Wasn’t going to go here because this isn’t particularly a forum for this, but I happen to have a degree in religious studies from a fairly conservative bible college. Where I was my class valedictorian. And also where, incidentally, I met KungFuGuy a good ten years ago. After which I spent five years working full time with christian missions to the poor and homeless in downtown Toronto. So there’s more than a fighting chance that I’ve read my bible a bit more than you. Quite a lot more, actually. And I recommend that you read it a good bit more because there’s obviously a lot in there that you haven’t grasped yet. Including the grammar.

    And as I’ve said a few times now saying that the film has made any sort of impact on the culture in general is a hugely flawed argument because the overwhelming majority of people who have seen it were already christians who bought up tickets in bulk. The word isn’t being preached to the masses Troy, it’s being preached to the choir, and in an exceedingly limited fashion. The scope of the film is so limited in fact that you can’t even call it a gospel film, something Gibson himself evidently recognized when choosing his title. It’s exactly the same situation as when the church of scientology buys up stacks of L Ron Hubbards books to push them into the best seller lists so that they can turn around and claim that he’s widely read and respected worldwide when the actual fact is that it’s dominantly previous converts doing the reading.

    Now Troy, go back and read my last post again. All of it, in detail. You getting the point of it yet? No? I’ll lay it out for you.

    You claim to be a follower of Jesus, yes? Which means that the responsibility for doing this preaching you’re so keen on lies with you. In fact you’re supposed to represent Christ to the non believers. What have you demonstrated so far? You’re judgemental. You’re not at all interested in listening to other people’s points of view. You come off with this smug ‘ha ha I’m going to heaven and everyone else is going to burn’ smugness. You make these fantastic and unsupported leaps in logic and can’t be bothered to respond when other people point them out.

    The gospel works on principles of attraction and has since the time of Christ. You’re a long, long way from being attractive. You like the movie? Fine, say so and tell us why. Good for you. But keep the small mindedness, assumptions as to other people’s natures and backgrounds, and sideways insults to yourself. Because all your doing is making yourself, and by extension your faith, look bad.

  34. And just one more thing the reason i also want the Passion to gross alot of money cause it represents Jesus that is the biggest reason why and i think that is the reason alot of other christians want it to do so well also cause there is so many movies out there that glorify the devil and this one doesnt it glorifys Jesus and that is why the christians are glad its making so much money cause the more money it makes that means tons of people are seeing it.

  35. And christians win also from this movie cause when The Passion comes out on video you know every church will have this movie showing it to unbelievers from the time it comes out to the end of time i promise you so next time bubba you say christians dont gain anything from this movie and Mel is the only one think before you talk.

  36. you know buba everything your saying is false where do you get this bull there had to be people who didnt go to church to see this movie cause there is no way it would have made this much money by just church people as a matter of fact look at yourself you saw it and you dont go to church it sounds like so i rest my case and i know alot of other people who saw it who arnt big believers so wrong again. Bubba gets your facts stright before saying anything and The Passion is at 354M awesome means alot of people are seeing it and also that means more bible movies will come out cause of this movie that is how christians win also bubba cause this movie is paving the way for alot more bible movies and that means yes you guessed it the word will be preached alot more in movies thankyou lord

  37. Ummmm bubba we win i meant by that we win look in the bible in the end christians win maybe if you pick up a bible sometime maybe you would see who wins in the end sorry to shock you but it is the truth christians win in the end so what you said made no sence at all. And christians dont win cause the Passion is doing so good at the box office christians win cause Jesus is being preached to all man kind and it is making the bible come true the bible actually says that in the end times before Jesus comes back that the word will be preached to every nation and that is exactly what this movie is doing and when Jesus comes those who dont love him will be cast into hades and the christians who know Jesus will be with him forever that is how i can say we win. Its really sad bubba that you cant be happy that the word is being spread and you have to be a downer i feel sorry for you. And i dont think this film is winning souls i know it is people after seeing the film have confessed to murders and there are more storys like that so where do you get off saying it isnt changing peopeles lives it changed my life and millions of other peoples also. And from what i hear Mel is giving his money to charity so how is he gaining anything? Bubba gets your facts straight before judging and your not good at it ether.

  38. And once again Troy goes leaping to assumptions about people he knows nothing about. Well done, Troy. If, as you seem to think, you really are representing Jesus with this inane babble what you seem to be telling us is mostly that:
    a) Jesus is really annoying and brushes off any and all feedback given by others
    b) Jesus refuses to comment on any issues of substance when raised by other people
    c) Jesus equates commercial success with spiritual worth
    d) Jesus jumps to unfounded conclusions about people whom he knows nothing about

    Yes, yes Troy, we get it, Christians ‘win’ because the Passion is doing good box office. And what are they winning, exactly? A pat on the bum? How does one film’s financial success imply any sort of ‘winning’ for someone like you, who as far as I know had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with it? Only thing I can see that’s been ‘won’ here is a lot of financial gain for Gibson personally and Newmarket Films, and as I’ve said before good for them, but what does that have to do with anything else? You think maybe the film’s out there winning souls? Considering that the vast, vast majority of tickets have been sold to individual christians and church groups renting out theaters I kind of doubt it.

    And frankly, if my soul can be won by watching a film then I don’t think it was worth all that much in the first place.

  39. Yeah. Right.
    You know what? You can let a movie do the talking for you.
    Me? I’m going to go talk to the low and destitute and unloved and meet their needs personally instead of trusting that a movie will do the talking for me.
    You know. Like the Bible commands me to.
    You wish you had a nick as cool as mine.

  40. ANd The Passion is at number 8 in the highest grossing movies ever this is so funny so many people didnt think it would make it this far well lookie lookie. And like i said will be the number 1 movie this weekend beating The Alamo and hellboy and The whole Ten Yards i just find all this funny well people there you have it The Passion is the movie and Jesus he rules.

  41. Ok is it me or did anyone understand what Kungfu guy said with a name like that sounds like he needs to drop that name instead of telling me to drop the box office gig why should maybe cause im right did i or didnt i say The Passion will beat The Return of the King 375M and guess what today the passion is at 344M and is still going strong this weekend it will have beat The Return of the king or come very close to it ether way by this week it will beat The Return of the King and to all the people who said it wouldnt here is a big HA. And kungfuguy to late it has already brought alot of people into the kingdom is it me or does kungfu guy not know what the heck he is talking about but anyway this weekend The Passion will be number1 again shows how much people know and when it passes 400M they will keep putting the passion down there just mad cause alot more bible movie will come out cause of this well get used to it we christians win the battle.

  42. We learnt while in School, Church & Sunday Classes also have seen few movies. This movie beats all it’s the most powerful movie I’ve seen on last few hours/days of Jesus the Passion is very well reflected through this movie.

    The suffering Jesus made for mankind is not only the isolate message across this movie but the last part where Jesus rose from his death and bring salvation to mankind and God’s Love also must carved into our hearts. God Bless the brains behind the movies this will bring more people close the Christ.

  43. Bubba,

    Sounds like a need for a sequel? OR maybe a pre-quel? Maybe a Trilogy?

    The pre-quel tells the story from Genesis to the Garden of Gethsemane.

    The sequel tells the story after the resurrection.

  44. Life better here on earth? Well, you’ve just exposed yourself as a good protestant, most likely a charismatic, who’s never read the book of martyrs. Or anything on the deaths of the prophets, particularly Isaiah and Jeremiah. Or the apostles. Or the first few hundred years of church history before Constantine made it a state religion. Or the state of Christianity and treatment of Christians throughout pretty much the entire non-western world. Or paid much attention to anything that Jesus had to say about belief in God leading directly to rampant persecution and hatred. Don’t know about you, but being stuck in a hollow log and sawn in half isn’t my idea of a good time in the here and now.

    Sorry, but overly simplistic truisms really, really irritate me.

    Anyway … here’s an idea I’ve been tossing around for the past couple days. It revolves around context and why Christians and non christians are responding to the film so differently … Here’s the thing: Do you think that Gibson has limited the impact of his film by so severely limiting the focus? The criticism that seems to come up again and again is that Gibson hasn’t set Christ’s actions into any sort of context, he’s just given you a man being brutally beaten for a couple hours before finally being executed. This is the criticism that led to a pair of very good reviewers here in town labelling the film “torture-porn” and is also behind most of the accusations of anti-Semitism. The lack of larger context isn’t a problem for the christian world who are familiar with the rest of the gospels and automatically fill in the back story, but it seems to be one for an awful lot of non-believers who have a hard time placing it in any sort of context. I’d be interested especially to hear from non-Christians on this …

  45. May the love of GOD fall upon Mel Gibson and his children and all his descendants.Mel, thanks for making this movie about our Savior JESUS CHRIST!

  46. You know what I find interesting? Not only was this movie brilliantly made (such as acting, special effects, and scene locations), but it has changed the lives of people.

    You don’t hear this in the mainstream media, but there was a burglar who turned himself in on multiple robberies after seeing this movie. A man, who’s wife’s death was ruled as a suicide, confessed to killing her like 15 years ago. These are just two of many stories like this. Jesus can change your life too.

    Jesus can forgive any sin (even murder), except one, and that is blasphemy. That’s not taking his name in vain, but rejecting him. All you have to do is ask Him to come in to your heart, forgive your sins, and to save your soul. Life is short and unpredictable, but eternity is forever. I would rather spend it in paradise, then burn in hell.

    Remember this too. He even makes your life better here on this earth.

  47. This is soo interesting. You people are have a ball I see. The passsion is an excellent film, acting was great the dramatisation was excellent. Mel Gibson did an excellent job and you know I don’t think this will kill his career it will certainly make in very , very wealthy. I hope in cash and kind.

  48. Along with troy’s lack of grammatical prowess is also his lack of reading comprehension skills. Dude. Drop the box office gig. It’s getting old.
    I’ve seen The Passion. Was personally moved by it helping me further understand the sacrifice Christ made for guys like troy, Bubba and myself.
    But at the same time I equate The Passion with a Christian t-shirt! Makes the Christians feel all warm and fuzzy and that they’re doing their part but sure as heck isn’t going to bring more people into the kingdom as much as sitting down with someone and talking with them and getting to know them and meeting their needs will.
    Great. Now I’ve gone all envangelistic here. Look what you made me do!!!

  49. Hey John getting worried there The Passion is at 331M and is now in the top 10 highest grossing movies ever i tryed to tell you The Passion is going to beat The Return of the King US gross of 375M but no dont listen to me.

  50. I’ve never said anything about the Passion’s box office either way. For that matter, I tend to say very little about any film’s box office receipts either way, other than to occasionally stand in awe at just how much profit somebody has turned off of something as ultimately trivial as a film. I don’t talk about it because I don’t think big box office generally has any bearing one way or the other on the quality of a film. Box office is primarily a reflection of marketing and meeting specific market demands rather than meeting some level of quality. Is Titanic far and away the highest grossing film ever because it’s far and away the best film ever? Nope. It sold a lot of tickets because Leo got an awful lot of teenage girls all hot and bothered. Likewise The Passion’s strong box office says more about the viability of the religious right as a marketable demographic than anything else. The Christian community has been sold on the idea that it is somehow their moral duty to support the film because of it’s content and so they’ve gone out and bought blocks of tickets for the express purpose of driving it to the top of the charts because we’ve all bought into the lovely consumerist ideal that ‘popularity’ equals ‘validation’. It’s equivalent to Scientology buying thousands of copies of L Ron Hubbard’s books to drive them onto the Times Bestseller List. Personally I’m pleased that Mel’s turning a profit on this, but I’m certainly not buying into the idea that the box office success somehow means that it’s the best film of the year (which personally I give to Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind, thus far) or even the best recent film on the topic of redemption (which personally I give to Dead Man Walking). As far as whether the film ends up as the top box office draw of the year, I care not one bit.

    And way to ignore the more significant part of my post.

  51. lol Bubba your funny i think everyone knows what im saying without puncuating your the only one that has said anything about it and that isnt true puncuating doesnt make the world go round if it did they wouldnt have invented telephones. But to my point by this weekend The Passion breck into the top 10 or by Monday because Mel had it put into 500 more screens yesterday for easter weekend and people dont think it is going to pass The Return of the kings 375M please dont make yourself look bad coming on here and saying The Passion isnt going to pass 375M cause you know what it is and when it does you better believe im going to get on this site right here and say told you so.

  52. Because talkign without breathing leads to a lack of oxygen to the brain and, subsequently, a lack of consciousness?

    Because it’s polite and makes what you have to say much easier to read, thus meaning that more people will actually put the effort into reading it?

    Because grammar makes the world go round?

    And there’s a certain amount of arrogance that goes into making assumptions about other people’s spiritual lives or lack thereof. Especially people you’ve never met. You may want to avoid doing that in the future. It’s this kind of rabid ‘Jesus loves The Passion’ fan ranting that has prevented me from seeing it in the first place simply because I automatically tend to resist anything that tells me to turn of my critical faculties, and although the movie itself may not do that the fan reaction to it certainly has. Not liking, or seeing, a movie in some way reflects anything about my relationship with God? Hardly. I say good for Mel for making a film that had the potential to destroy him from a business perspective simply because he felt it was the right thing to do, and anyone making a “christian” film with decent production values is certainly a welcome change from the utter crap regularly foisted upon people in the name of Jesus, and honestly I’m glad you liked it and that it made some sort of impact with you. Really. But don’t you go making assumptions about who or what I am.

  53. Bubba if only you where excited about Jesus the way i was it would be a much better world and why punctuate are you stupid that you cant read what i am saying if i dont punctuate? Im just messing with you bubba but really why punctuate you know what im saying without doing it.

  54. And when i said that The Passion would beat Return of the king i meant the US gross of 375M and trust me The Passion will beat it i promise you and not only that i believe it will beat Titanics record 600M cause The Passion has been a blockbuster in other countrys also but i will prove John wrong when The Passion beats The Return of the kings 375M in April i predict that The Passion will also pass the 400M mark by the time April is over watch and see people i have faith in Jesus and what did Jesus say when you have faith anything is possible.

  55. hahahahahahah John John john you poor boy i feel sorry for you isnt it funny that The Passion is already at 319M and it isnt easter yet and is still making 2 million a day during the week alone and around 12 to 13M on the weekend and guess what this friday Mel is having The Passion put in 500 more screens so it is going to make even more money and we still have 7 more days till easter and people are predicting easter weekend to bring around 30 or 40M and more and The Passion has only been out for 34days how many days has The return of the King been out 100 and something days people i promise you The return of the king will be beat by The Passion of the Christ its at #12 on the highest grossing films and still climbing its sad that John cant see this but he will soon enough its also funny well people get ready for it The Passion is going to overtake any movie and is going to sink Titanic go Jesus go.

  56. I applaud Mel Gibson for heeding the call of Christ to make this movie. Those who bashed it even before it came out should be ashamed of themselves, but I guess those are the people Christ came to save. It was because of His suffering that people who blaspheme Him may just be given a second chance to seek Him. I pray that all who see this movie will be stirred, renew their faith or even find a new found faith in God. Going up? – John 3:16

  57. Ummm… yeah…. sorry Troy… but I really don’t think so. At it’s decrease box office rate from week to week I don’t expect Passion to hit $400 million, let alone $625 million

  58. Awesome film this is the best film i have ever seen and i see alot of films you have got to see this film it is alot better then the Lord of the ring movies and it is going to stomp them in the ground after it gets finished along with titanic but go see this movie awesome movie.

  59. I saw the movie this weekend, And I am overwhelmed. The suffering this man went through for us, it really has opened my eyes, my heart and my faith. Good for you Mel Gibson. This is exactly what this world needs to see right now, with so much going on. Yes, I have read what he went through but to actually see it, has completly overtook me. I have always believed in God, but never served him like I should. After seeing this movie, my life has and is going to continue to change. God Bless you Mel Gibson

  60. i knew this movie was going to be big when my dad, who has not been to a movie theater to see a movie in 40 years, went to see it on opening day. he got his tickets two weeks in advance and had to go to a town next to where he lives because the theater in his town was sold out for a week and a half. i can only compare what i have seen with this movie to the original star wars release in 1977. i have not seen the film yet, waiting for crowd to die down, but I am very proud of Gibson to see his artistic vision through despite those in Hollywood who just don’t get it.

    With all that is going on with Disney and Eisner, I think if I had been a shareholder at the recent shareholder’s meeting, I would have asked why did the top executives pass on this movie. This movie is just another reason for regime change at the Mouse…and the rest of Hollywood for that matter…

  61. This Movie Rocked My world. Jesus has long been my best friend, and now I will pick up cross whatever that may be and walk along side him up that rocky hill and place my cross beside his. Mel, thanks for your obedience.
    Remember if Jesus wasn’t real there would have never been such an attack against him and his followers. Thanks’s Jesus

    Shane Martin
    26 years
    Vancouver, Canada

  62. I can’t imagine the rewards Mel Gibson will recieve for following his heart and his own passion in making this movie. I’m not talking about movie statue rewards. I’m talking about heavenly awards. He added a bundle of new daimonds to his crown, and so did James Caviezel.
    I respect and adore Mel Gibson for giving “The Passion of The Christ” to us. It’s like he have Jesus to the world.

  63. Keep also in mind that ROTK was released in 700 more theatres than the Passion of the Christ!

    There is something behind all this interest in Christ. Although I admit…it is “hard” to believe. Good luck with that.

  64. I find it hard to believe that this film mad soo much money. Is it any good? Its nice to see a religous film actually suceed for once. Religous films seem to do quiet badly and the bad publicity they get seem to ditract from the content. Last Temptation of Christ got banned by many cinemas. Even Pythons Holy Grail got banned in a few places and that was a comedy. Its just hard to imagine a film about christ, played in a foreign language with English subtitles appealing to the American market place. Could it be the “Mel Gibson” factor that has attracted so many theatre go’ers? Maybe movie fans wanted a change from all the Wizardry and Gargols and Fantasy that Hollywood offers these days? (mind you a story about Jesus couldn’t be more fantasy could it?) Anyway, beats me.

  65. Remember, Return of the King was released during a much bigger movie going season. More people go to see big movies during Christmas realeases than any other time of the year besides summer. Also, if I remember correctly, The Return of the King didn’t open up againt ANYTHING. No studio was stupid enough to open one of it’s movies against the box office juggernaught that is “Lord of the Rings”.

  66. I think that’s a poor excuse for why it did so well. All the “free publicity” is just a testament to how excited people were about seeing it and how eager people were for the film to come out in theaters.
    I also think your competition argument is weak b/c I think for the most part people didn’t just settle on “The Passion” b/c there was nothing else playing. It broke records for pre-ordered tickets. People were going to go see “The Passion” opening weekend regardless of what else was playing. Well, if it came out on the same weekend as LOTR, that might be a different story.
    I’m just interested in seeing how it will do in the following weeks. I have a feeling that a huge percentage of the moviegoers this weekend were of the Christian/Catholic community, urged to go by church leaders and whatnot. Once they’ve all seen it, who else is going to go? That’s what I’m wondering.

  67. As much credit as this opening deserves, ROTK did open during the height of the holiday season with much stiffer competition than ‘Passion’ (“Havana Nights”–come on!)

    Plus, it being Academy Award weekend, everyone had movie on the brain and weeks, nay, *months* of free publicity about ‘Passion’ did no harm in making this the movie to see and talk about.

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