ENTERTAINMENT:The Passion Breaks Records, Starts Discussion

Mel Gibson's movie "The Passion of the Christ" is shattering box office records left and right. The movie is the biggest February opening of all time, highest grossing foreign-language film in North America ever. After beating LOTR Return of the King. Only Star Wars Phantom Menace surpasses it for best 5 day opening ever. This movie is going beyond the initial hype, it's a mainstream, must-see film.

bbc.co.uk
Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ has broken the US five-day box office record held by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
Gibson's controversial religious movie made $125.2m (�68.2m) in its first five days, updated figures have confirmed.
That pushed it past the Oscar-winning Rings film's earlier record of $124.1m

The Passion, which has faced much controversy has gone beyond being the best selling religious film of all times. Its officially a hit. The film is a mainstream event that people discuss at the watercooler at work. But there is one broken record that is not getting mentioned. The media is talking about Christ. Every day on the news there are discussions about who killed Christ. Is this an accurate portrayal of the life of Jesus? Were the Jews responsible for the death of Jesus? Yes! Even the most liberal media is talking about Jesus. This discussion carries over into Europe as well.

Has there ever been such a debate in the United States (or world) about the life and death of Jesus? This movie has the potential to do more than sell tickets. It's a major cultural event. If you look at the New York Times bestseller list you will find that most categories have religious books in the top 10. A book to accompany the film sold out of all 150,000 copies almost instantly, while a book Gibson used for the movie - The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ - has seen sales jump from 3,000 in 2002 to 17,000 this February alone. With all of this debate and discussion, the question has to be asked. What does all of this mean? Is this God's last call for America? Hard to say, but its probably true that nothing like this will ever happen again. When you add this the list of other events in the news it paints an interesting picture. (War, earthquakes, daily trouble in Israel, and The Passion of the Christ.)

Update:
After breaking almost every record in the book, The Passion of the Christ has created a new record that never even existed before. This last Easter weekend, the Passion claimed #1 spot in the box office again. The previous 3 weeks other movies had lead the way in sales, but the Passion is back on top again. Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations said, "That's unprecedented. I've never seen that before. 'The Passion' is just rewriting box-office history."

Other Sources:
Fox News - "The Passion Rises Again"

[Edited on 12-4-2004 by dbates]

It's interesting to see this discussion take place amongst such a large group of people, who wouldn't normally be talking about the sotry of Jesus. When I first heard about the film early last year, I wasn't sure if it would make it big, or it would just be isolated to more independant theatres for a short time, then go to video.

Gibson had a seemingly hard time finding a distributor, and I'm personally glad that the movie has been a success for him. And, it's created some very interesting discussion, as well.

Originally posted by parrhesia
When I first heard about the film early last year, I wasn't sure if it would make it big, or it would just be isolated to more independant theatres for a short time, then go to video.

I wondered about that too, but when it was released it was on 4,700 screens in 3,043 theaters across the United States and Canada. It is reported to be doing well in Australia too, but I haven't seen any figures from there yet.

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Originally jesus was a man. After he was hung on a cross(like thousands of others)he became a superhero. There are many reports of jesus sightings(like bigfoot)after his cross hanging.There are are many writings of jesus after the cross hanging. Hell there are reports of entire groups of crucifiction survivors roaming the lands. They say he is buried in india...shsssss.
His shape keeps changing because he was never real.
Would you freaks really want to worship a real man? Doubt it.

they movie is evil and it is the devil trying to scare people into beieving his horrible lies.....we are all iun the nation of lucifer...just watch and see...well if you had half a #in brain you would already see how selfish and satanic everybody is even if the claim to be christian...their selfish actions speak louder then words ever could...

I don't understand what was so big about the movie if everyone already knew what happened.

Originally posted by AF1
I don't understand what was so big about the movie if everyone already knew what happened.

It's not that big of a suprise that a movie from the best selling book of all times is a hit. If you don't understand the movie, the best thing to do is read the book. There are always lots of extra details that fill in the gaps that they don't have screen time for.

UPDATE
The movie has passed $200,000,000.00 mark. This is going to be the highest grossing 'R' rated movie of all times.

It's not that big of a suprise that a movie from the best selling book of all times is a hit.

Yes but there is no dramatic interest in this story. I mean who is really going to be on the edge of their seats wondering what is going to happen. Are people flocking to see this movie because they feel they have a Christian responsibility to? Or maybe they are just curious how bloodily entertaining it can be because it sure as hell won't be entertaining from the point of dramatic curiosity.

Meddled

Originally posted by ashley
Originally jesus was a man. ...
Would you freaks really want to worship a real man? Doubt it.

That's one of the very keys to the story. Jesus was God the Son come to us as a man to bear the weight of the sins of the world and pay the price for those sins through his death.
The nature of this BBoard doesn't really allow us to have a good discussion of this and such a discussion would likely be against the rules here. I would like to try to help answer any quesitions you may have about this and to try and address some of the points you bring up here. Feel free to ping me offline at "fishboy(AT)grayssupport.com".
Thanks!

Originally posted by fishboy
The nature of this BBoard doesn't really allow us to have a good discussion of this and such a discussion would likely be against the rules here.

I don't believe that's entirely true. The Faith, Spirituality & Theology discussion on Below Top Secret was made just for this purpose.

LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- Before Mel Gibson launched "The Passion of the Christ" in movie theaters across North America, insiders speculated that the controversial film might hurt the filmmaker's acting career.

With about $214 million in hand through last weekend, there's no question "Passion," which Gibson made through his and Bruce Davey's Icon Productions, will gross north of $300 million in domestic theaters. In fact, for several reasons it seems quite likely to reach $350-400 million.

www.cnn.com... ml

I believe that "Titanic" leads right now with over $600 million...

I see "the Passion" breaking that record and in less time.

I think this movie just gives people yet another opportunity to act like sheep.

I worked at Barnes & Noble during the whole 9/11 thing. Wanna know how much of a demand there was for the Koran and Nostradamus Prophecy books in the 2 months following 9/11?...

Updated Article:
It's back on top again. After several weeks trailing behind other movies, The Passion has claimed the top spot once more. This is really unheard of and unlikely to be repeated again.