Top Stories of 2004: 'Passion' Impressive at Box Office, Incomparable in Depiction of Christ's Suffering
by Jody Brown and Bill Fancher
December 22, 2004
(AgapePress) - It appears Mel Gibson has another blockbuster hit to add to his impressive filmography. Only this time, the violence depicted in the film -- brutality that was foretold centuries earlier through God's prophet Isaiah -- was inflicted upon a man who willingly gave His life so that mankind could have the hope of eternity with God.The distributor of The Passion of the Christ says Mel Gibson's film took in $23.6 million on its opening day (Wednesday) -- plus an additional $3 million from private screenings for church groups. Newmarket Films' Rob Schwartz says the bloody depiction of Jesus' scourging and crucifixion is well on its way to the $100 million mark.
Appearing Thursday night on Jay Leno's Tonight Show, Gibson did not shy away from the issue of the film's violence, which earned the movie an R rating. In fact, he readily admitted the film is violent and deserved the rating it got. But the violence, he said, was not "gratuitous" and, in his opinion, drew different audience reactions than those generated by horror films.
And as for verbal attacks against Gibson for The Passion's supposed "anti-Semitic" content? "It's wrong, it's unconscionable," he said, adding that he was unfazed by Hollywood's years of criticism leading up to the movie's release. The veteran actor said he had discovered that in Tinseltown "you can get a shiv between the shoulder blades and it's done with a smile."
NewsMax.com
reports that Gibson's comments about his reason for making the film may have struck a chord with the Tonight Show host. "Thanks for the courage of your convictions," Leno said at the end of the interview. Gibson had been greeted with a prolonged standing ovation when he was introduced on the popular NBC show.| | 
James Caviezel as Jesus in The Passion of the Christ |
Jesus Chose to Die
Tony Nassif of the Cedars Cultural and Educational Foundation says Gibson's movie does a wonderful job of showing both the humanity and the deity of Christ as He suffered on the cross."At any moment, He had the authority and the power to stop it all, destroy the enemy [and] destroy sinful mankind," Nassif says. "So in every single ounce of pain that He allowed to be inflicted upon Himself -- get this -- He had to choose to continue to allow it to happen."
Nassif says Christ demonstrated his great love for humanity through His suffering on the cross -- something the movie depicts in great detail. That aspect of the story, according to Nassif, is necessary because it shows the depth of Christ's love prior to and while He was on the cross.
"If He had come down [from the cross] a split second before He died, the whole plan of salvation would have been obliterated," he explains. "We have no idea what was going on in His mind -- the attack and the battle -- and that's an example for us to know that in our life, the battle first starts in the mind and the heart."
The Passion of the Christ opened on more than 4,600 screens in 3,000 theaters. Mel Gibson put up the film's $25 million budget out of his own pocket. After theater owners take their cut, about half of the box office take will come back to Gibson, who then pays Newmarket a percentage fee for distribution.
Dreamworks SKG's 1998 animated tale of Moses The Prince of Egypt took in $101 million total. Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie, produced by Big Idea Productions, had a total box office of $25.6 million.
Associated Press contributed to this story.
