A BOX-OFFICE MIRACLE `PASSION' PASSING BLOCKBUSTERS.Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer With more than a quarter-billion dollars in ticket sales in just three weeks, ``The Passion of the Christ'' is quickly going from being a surprise blockbuster block·bust·er n. 1. Something, such as a film or book, that sustains widespread popularity and achieves enormous sales. 2. A high-explosive bomb used for demolition purposes. 3. to a contender for all-time box office supremacy SUPREMACY. Sovereign dominion, authority, and preeminence; the highest state. In the United States, the supremacy resides in the people, and is exercises by their constitutional representatives, the president and congress. Vide Sovereignty. . According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. figures released Monday, ``Passion'' has now earned $264.5 million domestically. With Easter weekend still ahead, the controversial Mel Gibson-directed drama has become a cultural phenomenon and could spend several more weeks atop the box office charts. Box office experts believe that ``The Passion'' has such strong momentum that it will eventually surpass such blockbusters as ``The Lord of the Ring: The Return of the King'' ($371.1 million), ``Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace'' ($431 million) and ``Spider-Man'' ($403.7 million). The all-time box office champ, ``Titanic Titanic (tītăn`ĭk), British liner that sank on the night of Apr. 14–15, 1912, after crashing into an iceberg in the N Atlantic S of Newfoundland. More than 1,500 lives were lost. ,'' grossed $600.7 million. ``We think it's going to be No. 2 behind `Titanic,''' predicted box office analyst Robert Bucksbaum, president of ReelSource.com. ``The theaters will hold the film knowing that Easter is going to be huge.'' ``Passion'' took in an additional $32.1 million over the weekend, easily fending off a trio of new films, ``Secret Window,'' ``Agent Cody Banks 2,'' and ``Spartan,'' as well as popular holdovers ``Starsky and Hutch'' and ``Hidalgo'' to retain the top spot. Released by Newmarket Films and financed by Gibson himself, the modestly budgeted ``Passion'' will be one of the most profitable movies of all time regardless of its final ranking on the blockbuster list. As of Monday, the movie had passed ``Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'' ($261.9 million) to climb to 23rd place among all-time grossers. By next weekend, it should surpass ``Shrek'' ($267.6 million), ``The Matrix Reloaded'' ($281.5 million) and possibly ``Home Alone'' ($285.7 million) to reach 20th place. ``This is the most unexpected blockbuster of all time,'' said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracker Exhibitor Relations Co. ``Already this movie, for how well it has done and the type of movie it is, is already historic.'' The R-rated, heavily violent film about the final hours of Jesus Christ Jesus Christ: see Jesus. Jesus Christ 40 days after Resurrection, ascended into heaven. [N.T.: Acts 1:1–11] See : Ascension Jesus Christ kind to the poor, forgiving to the sinful. [N.T. has drawn regular moviegoers, the curious and, most crucially, huge Christian audiences who don't usually flock flock 1. a group of one species of animal or bird which eats or travels or is kept together, e.g. flock of sheep, of wild geese. 2. wool or cotton particles or debris used as stuffing or packing. to see a film in large numbers. ``It sort of has its own supply of audience that seems to not diminish each week,'' Dergarabedian said. An unexpected audience segment has been younger, non-religious moviegoers between the ages of 18 and 30 who are attracted by the explicit violence in the depiction of Christ's Crucifixion crucifixion, hanging on a cross, in ancient times a method of capital punishment. It was practiced widely in the Middle East but not by the Greeks. The Romans, who may have borrowed it from Carthage, reserved it for slaves and despised malefactors. . ``Any time there's an R-rated movie, you have teens thinking it's a cool thing to do even if it's a religious movie,'' Bucksbaum said. Newmarket Films has conservatively projected that ``Passion'' could reach more than $350 million in grosses, but Dergarabedian said with such a unique film all bets are off. ``It will keep going,'' he said. ``Wherever it's going to stop, I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. . I'm not really prepared to put any limits on this film.'' Greg Hernandez, (818) 713-3758 greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- color) Jesus, played by Jim Caviezel, carries the cross in ``The Passion of the Christ,'' which is No. 1 at the box office. (2) Jesus sits with Apostles APOSTLES. In the British courts of admiralty, when a party appeals from a decision made against him, he prays apostles from the judge, which are brief letters of dismission, stating the case, and declaring that the record will be transmitted. 2 Brown's Civ. and Adm. Law, 438; Dig. 49. 6. during the Last Supper Last Supper, in the New Testament, meal taken by Jesus and his disciples on the eve of the passion. Jesus broke bread and passed a cup of wine among the disciples, identifying himself with the bread and the wine and linking the meal to his impending death on the in this scene from ``The Passion of the Christ.'' Philippe Antonello |
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