Aside from the Oscars, all the film gossip over the last few days has been about the Mel Gibson Christ movie and the talk continues.
<strong>Box-Office</strong>
Financially so far the movie has been a huge success. On top of its $26 million opening day on Wednesday, the film is on course to take in $60+ million over the Friday-Sunday weekend period (at least ten times that of the other three openers this week like "Twisted" and "Havana Nights") and break through the $100 million tally by Sunday evening. Internationally openings like in Australia have been solid but not spectacular.
<strong>Critical Reaction </strong>
While its making money hand over fist, on the review front it hasn't been so lucky with very mixed and divided results worldwide. Rotten Tomatoes reports that the film scored a 53% approval rating and an average score of 6.5/10 amongst major critics across the US.
More telling than this though is that in major Metropolitan cities like New York, LA, Chicago, etc. that critical approval rating is a much weaker 36% whereas in the mid-West and more regional areas its a more positive 69% approval reaction.
The film received a high recommendation from 84% of RT users with individual ratings very polarized. Users who recommend the film mostly gave it their highest marks, and users who didn't gave it their lowest marks.
<strong>Controversy</strong>
Whilst the calls of anti-semitism seem to be dying down now that it's finally out, other charges have come in to take their place. French film distributors denied on Friday they were boycotting Mel Gibson's controversial movie despite the film not yet having a distributor in that country. A UK screening for media and church officials prompted walkouts according to the tabloids, and in the US some critical eyes have come down upon the movie's tie-in merchandise, some of which is admittedly in questionable taste. The 'Passion' craze is not over yet.
Thanks to 'KC'
