Special effect: controversy assures 'Da Vinci Code' will be bigger at the box office.

'The Da Vinci Code" will be a great success at the box office.

OK, so maybe that s not the most controversial prediction you've heard this year, or even this week. After all, the novel by Dan Brown has sold countless millions of copies and the film, opening this week, combines director Ron Howard and Tom Hanks, two names that have traditionally added up to major ticket sales.

But this time, the pairing could have been dicey. The subject matter of Brown's novel (and the screenplay by Akiva Goldsman) has drawn the wrath of the Vatican itself, and Opus Dei, the Catholic group whose members act as the "villains" for the film and book, has called for a disclaimer on the film to indicate that it is indeed a work of fiction.

The Greek Orthodox Church has also denounced the film--which it has not yet seen--and is reportedly issuing leaflets at services explaining that the film is "wholly false."

You can't buy this kind of publicity.

While Howard, Hanks and the rest of the filmmakers insist that no one has ever come close to suggesting that "Da Vinci" is anything but fiction, they are also refusing to add the disclaimer, and they are right to do so. Let the protests go on; let the denunciations continue. It can only help the box office receipts.

The film's denouncers think that by warning people to stay away from a view they don't like, that they're handing Superman--in this case the film--kryptonite. Instead, they're handing Popeye spinach.

Martin Scorsese made "The Last Temptation of Christ" in 1988. It starred Willem Defoe as a very human-seeming Jesus who was tempted to turn away from his ultimate sacrifice and instead live a quiet life with Mary Magdalene (Barbara Hershey). Religious leaders around the world denounced that film as well. There were picketers outside select theaters where the film was being shown. Similar criticisms--that the film (which was taken from a novel by Nikos Kazantzakis) depicted religious events in a way other than the traditional--were raised, and the effect was similar. The protests drove the public to wonder what it might be missing.

"Last Temptation" was hardly a blockbuster; it earned only about $8 million at the box office. But without the protests, an "art film" about a religious figure starring Harvey Keitel as Judas probably would have made considerably less money, especially in 1988 dollars. That was without 40 million copies of the novel in print, without the thriller plot and without Tom Hanks, perhaps the best-loved star in the world at this point.

If the religious leaders who are denouncing "Da Vinci" were trying to help the film's chances for success, they couldn't have done more.

Work of fiction

The subject of the controversy in "Da Vinci" revolves around the plot's contention that--if you're one of the four people who haven't read the book, but intend to see the movie, you might want to skip this next line--Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a child, and that the bloodline survives to this day. Members of Opus Dei protect this information at all costs, including that of human life.

Brown, Howard and every person involved in the book or the film have all acknowledged that it is entirely a work of fiction, a thriller intended to entertain and not to be taken as a serious history or theological speculation. But by legitimizing the claims of the plot (church officials reportedly had a hand in getting a poster for the film removed from a wall near the Vatican in Rome), those who would try to dissuade the public from seeing the film are simply increasing the curiosity about it. There's nothing that drives people to investigate something more than the contention that they shouldn't be allowed to.

In 1953, Otto Preminger released a film called "The Moon Is Blue." The film was denied a Production Code Seal from the Motion Picture Association for its supposedly cutting-edge raciness. Modern audiences would be amazed at how tame the film is; the big offense was the use of the word "virgin." The publicity drove its box office figures beyond reasonable expectations.

"The Da Vinci Code" didn't need the help, but is getting it anyway. Will we ever know whether the receipts would have been as high without the controversy? Probably not, but anyone who bets against this film after all this free publicity is probably very, very misguided.

Michael Levine is the founder of the Hollywood public relations firm Levine Communications Office. He is the author of 17 books, the latest of which is "Broken Windows, Broken Business."