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Topic: Grosses for PASSION OF CHRIST - a 100 Million in 5 days ?
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Kamakshipalya Dhananjay
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 190
From: Bangalore, India
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted 02-26-2004 01:54 AM
The opening day estimates are just in. Daily Variety quotes Newmarket's Bob Berney as saying that with only 857 theatres reporting up until the matinee, the grosses were 7 million. Taking the same as the basis, the report quotes his estimate of an opening bow at 20 million.
I dont quite agree. Figures for Wedenesday alone will clock around 25 million. Add another 10 million in advance ticket sales and 3 million in Church group sales (I wonder if both these are accurate - these could also be revised) : there is a cumulative of 38 million.
So, will the next four days earn in another 62 million ? It is anybodys' answer. It will perfectly breach the 100 million mark by Sunday night.
Link to Variety article :
Devout auds drive stunning $20 million bow
--------------------------------------------------
Reproduced from the article :
Posted: Wed., Feb. 25, 2004, 6:30pm PT
'Passion' ka-ching
Devout auds drive stunning $20 million bow
By GABRIEL SNYDER
This article was updated at 7:35 p.m.
And on the first day, "The Passion of the Christ" became a blockbuster.
After days of dominating national headlines and cable news nets, auds flocked to see Mel Gibson's depiction of the crucifixion on Ash Wednesday, ringing up huge numbers at the box office.
Bob Berney, prexy of Newmarket Films, which is distributing "Passion" for Gibson's Icon Prods., estimated that the film would post an opening day gross of around $20 million.
Mid-day Wednesday, he said, "We're well over $7 million on the matinees alone and that's just 857 theaters reporting."
"Passion" bowed at 3,006 locations, with the pic playing on more than 4,600 screens.
"It's obviously happening -- bigtime," said Icon chairman Bruce Davey. "In some ways it's not surprising. All the controversy surrounding the film has only piqued interest."
Neither exec would make a projection of how much "Passion" would pick up through its first five days of release, but consensus estimates across the industry run north of $50 million, with some reaching past $70 million.
"Passion" looks to be well within striking distance of the record for the best opening day for a pic released outside the May-August summer span and November-December holiday season. Current title is held by "Hannibal," which rang up $19.8 million when it bowed on Feb. 9, 2001, a Friday.
Crossing that benchmark would rank "Passion" among Hollywood's biggest Wednesday openers.
The far-and-away Wednesday box office leader is "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," which posted $34.1 million for its opening day this past December.
Second on that list is "Stars Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace," which posted $28.5 million on its opening Wednesday in 1999.
More recently, "The Matrix Revolutions," the third installment in the trilogy, bowed mid-week last November with $24.3 million.
Church groups had been snapping up blocks of "Passion" advance tickets for weeks. Exhibs held shows for groups willing to buy out entire auditoriums Monday and Tuesday nights.
A tally of the gross from those shows is not complete, but Berney estimated they repped $3 million worth of biz. The final number will be rolled into the report for Wednesday, the pic's official release date. Other advance ticket sales for the first few days of release stand at $10 million.
Exhibs reported "Passion" was doing plenty of walk-up biz as well.
Reps for Regal and AMC, the nation's first and second largest exhib chains, said matinees had been selling out across the country -- unusual for pics that unspool on a weekday.
"We've had a number of sellouts with our matinees throughout the country," said Russ Nunley, Regal marketing and communications director.
AMC senior veep Rick King said, "Matinee business was very solid and signs point to a busy night at the theater tonight. It's definitely going to be a big opening week."
He added aud interest extended beyond the Bible Belt. "We're seeing fairly strong sales in the South and Midwest, but we've also had heavy business at our Times Square location."
Berney said that theater, AMC Empire 25, where "Passion" is playing on three screens, had reported $39,000 tickets sold for matinees Wednesday and group sale shows Monday and Tuesday.
"From the small towns to Manhattan, it's a broad response," Berney said.
"Passion" is benefiting from curiosity seekers in its first week of release, but exhibs see signs it could continue to play well, as church group interest will likely remain strong through Easter, April 11.
Both AMC and Regal say their group sales departments are still busy selling blocks for religious groups for next week and beyond.
Newmarket set so-called firm terms on its box office split with exhibitors in advance of theaters' rolling out "Passion." But exhibition insiders say it's unlikely the specialty distributor will actually see anything like the split it had arranged on paper.
That's because smaller distribs lack true enforcement clout when theater owners go delinquent on film rentals. Industryites still talk about how IFC Films, where Berney was the senior VP who engineered the huge success of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," was eventually forced to accept partial payments from some exhibs on that surprise hit.
About half the major studios negotiate firm terms in advance of a pic's release. The rest wait until the end of any theatrical run to discuss a B.O. split with exhibs. Studios with firm-term agreements keep exhibs honest by threatening to withhold future film releases from circuits that go delinquent -- something few theaters owners ever dare to do with major distribs as a result.
But for specialty distribs like Newmarket or IFC, so few of their art films ever cross over into commercial venues that a threat to withhold future movies would ring hollow.
Whatever its prospects of collecting on the terms, Newmarket has apparently struck firm-term pacts with various exhibs calling for a 70% share for the distrib in the first week of the "Passion" run, 60% the second week and smaller percentages in subsequent weeks.
The movie's opening dominated Wednesday's cable news airwaves, earning as much attention as the real war being waged on the Biblical turf of Iraq. In the scramble, even the 2004 presidential race was shoved aside.
Cable news net anchors hustled to pump up the passion, sending bookers on the hunt for Hollywood insiders, Christian clergy, Jewish leaders, media pundits and moviegoers. There were viewer polls and viewer call-ins. There were also clips from the movie -- and not the least violent ones either -- played again and again by Fox News, CNN and MSNBC.
Running out of angles, some cable news hosts resorted to reporting on the media attention itself.
CNN's Anderson Cooper mused aloud on his eponymous show -- "Why does Hollywood always portray Jesus as a good-looking white guy?"
(Carl DiOrio and Anthony D'Alessandro in Los Angeles and Pamela McClintock in New York contributed to this report.)
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