In only its second weekend, Mel Gibson's THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST topped $200M for Newmarket, the third quickest movie in history to do so. Taking in $53.2M on an additional 127 screens for the period ended March 7, 2004, THE PASSION led the box office chart in what appears to be a phenomenon in the making. At $213.8M, the controversial Passion Play should land somewhere between $300M and $400M, depending how long it plays past Easter.
Meanwhile, the rest of the good fortune spread throughout the top 10. Warner Bros.' STARSKY AND HUTCH debuted in second place with $28.1M. Disney's HIDALGO (with vfx by ILM) debuted at number three with $18.8M. Sony's 50 FIRST DATES dropped to fourth with $7.6M and a cume of $99.3M. Paramount's TWISTED (with vfx by ILM) landed in fifth with $5.1M and a total of $16.4M. Disney's CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE DRAMA QUEEN (with vfx by Intelligent Creatures) came in sixth with $4M and $21.8M so far. THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING jumped back up to seventh, thanks to its Oscar sweep, ringing in another $3M for New Line and a whopping $368.2M. Lions Gate's DIRTY DANCING: HAVANA NIGHTS came in eighth with $2.9M for a bankroll of $10.1M. Disney's MIRACLE skated to ninth with $2.5M for a total of $59.8M. And Newmarket's MONSTER got an Oscar lift to 10th place with $2.1M for a cume of $29.9M. Box office information obtained from boxofficemojo.com.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
