'Passion' packs 'em in

Posted Thursday, February 26, 2004 at 4:47 PM Central

by John Couture

Mel Gibson's latest film The Passion Of The Christ might be sparking debate across the world about its brutality or themes, but there's no debate to its success. Opening yesterday on Ash Wednesday, a Roman Catholic holy day, The Passion raked in $20 million according to estimates.

The figure represents a record for religious themed movies and rivals the performance of some of Hollywood's blockbusters in the last five years. As word of mouth spreads, it's likely that The Passion could bring in $60 for the opening weekend and approach $200 million in domestic box office business with the upcoming Easter holiday a natural boost for the movie.

This is the first film that Gibson has directed but not also appeared as the star. Previously, he directed 1993's The Man Without A Face and 1995's Braveheart.