As of Monday, “The Passion of the Christ” had a domestic gross of $330,856,971 after only six weeks of release. Compare that to the most recent huge blockbuster release, “The Return of the King,” which has a domestic gross of $375,204,550 after 16 weeks in theaters. And if it has a big week this week as many expect, it might even surpass ROTK.
Money isn’t everything, but it’s an indicator of how much impact a particular movie has had on the culture and this says TPOTC is fairly significant. Wow.
And when you add in the international grosses, by next Monday it should reach more than half a billion dollars. In only 7 weeks! That has to be the fastest jump to that level of any movie ever and the biggest gross of an independent movie. Again, wow.
I am SO happy that this movie has done as well as it has!!
I’m very pleased by how well the Passion has been doing. I never dreamed it could do anywhere near as well as it has. Nevertheless, I would not overstate its success. It is, after all, an R-rated foreign language religious movie.
See this comparative chart. It is doing very respectably, but it’s not the “biggest jump of any movie”. It looks it is getting the beginnings of a Holy Week boost, but I wouldn’t expect it to have legs after Easter. Also, the American market is a world of its own: foreign markets do not seem to have the same kind of reception we have seen in the US.
All I’m saying is that we should not be surprised if it is not the biggest box office performer in all human history. That should not diminish the astounding achievement of Mel Gibson.