cross-posted at skippy as well as a literal cornucopia of other community blogs.
tho here in the usa, the da vinci code opened slightly lower than the first weekend of william wallace’s the passion of the christ, the new tom hanks/magneto/doc ock flick creamed the son of god worldwide, doing especially well in catholic countries. deadline hollywood daily:
sony pictures told me exclusively this morning that da vinci code earned $224 million worldwide, making it the second biggest opening weekend of all time worldwide. (the only movie that did better was star wars 3, the last of the prequels, with $254 mil). that dvc figure broke down to $147 mil internationally, and $77 mil domestically. the studio told me that the film is the no. 1 all-time opening weekend internationally. dvc was #1 in predominantly catholic countries italy and spain, and #1 or #2 in every south american territory…according to box office mojo, dvc ranked #13 on the all-time u.s. opening weekend, behind mel gibson’s the passion of the christ. but, internationally, dvc swamped passion.
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of course, the box office sweepstakes isn’t the only reason the faithful are upset at dvc (which makes it sound like a tv shopping network). william wallace himself came out strong against the fact that people might think it was, well, fact:
mel gibson has gone a bit “mad max” over the “da vinci code.” the director of “the passion of the christ” says that the latest hit movie based upon religion “weaves facts with maverick theories” reports a web site citing hollywood.com as its source.
however, gibson of all people should be the last person to criticize any film for taking dramatic license by positing theories and/or spinning some imagined history.
after all, the former maverick had more than a few “maverick” moments in his jesus movie.
personally, we find it highly ironic when anybody who takes the bible as literal fact gets upset over the possibility that somebody else might believe a movie.
the real reason, in our opinion, that the faithful are getting the vapors over dvc is not so much that movie-goers would suddenly stop believing in christ and start believing in dan brown. no, we think that the religious officialdom of christianity is worried that the “faithful” might do something even worse…start asking questions! like san luis obispo resident connie hasley:
it was like, `gosh, is this true? did it really happen that way?’ ” the 41-year-old mother of two said. “i remember thinking, `this could really change people’s perception.’ ”
according to hasley, the novel’s main premise — that the catholic church spent centuries covering up the idea that jesus christ married and had a child — didn’t rock her faith as a christian. but it made her realize how little she knows about the founding of her own religion.
“now i really do want to know what pieces are totally bogus and what pieces are true,” she said.
heaven forbid (literally) that blue-collar work-a-day christians start reading up on the council of nicaea…when church leaders decided which parts of the bible would be included in the official version…and whether or not jesus was divine.