Word-of-mouth will now be the main factor affecting future sales. But it does not necessarily indicate that the fan base is growing.
" Code" dipped 6% on Saturday from its opening Friday which is not too surprising given the upfront demand and media hysteria. However, with so many fans of the book rushing theaters immediately to see the film, it may have already burned through much of its total audience. The Memorial Day holiday weekend will certainly help give " Da Vinci" a solid second weekend. Instead, the Hanks flick opened on the high end of the most optimistic expectations. Since " Da Vinci" skews to a mature adult audience which pays attention to critics, it seemed that the opening could take a hit from the bad buzz.
#THE SECOND DA VINCI CODE MOVIE MOVIE#
" Code" made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, just ahead of its day-and-date global release, and was met by mostly harsh reviews from the world’s top movie critics. With more appeal outside of North America than the Jedi flick, " Code"’s overseas opening inched past " Episode III" to set a new international debut weekend record.Ĭontroversy surrounded the film during its development, shooting, and pre-release stages which in turn led to endless media coverage and speculation over whether or not moviegoers would stay away. That marked the second largest worldwide launch in history after the $253M of " Star Wars Episode III" this same weekend one year ago. As a result, the film tallied a staggering $147M internationally putting its worldwide opening at a jaw-dropping $224M. Worldwide, " The Da Vinci Code" was launched with one of the most aggressive distribution strategies ever planned invading over 12,000 theaters overseas. In fact, Howard’s last film " Cinderella Man" grossed less in its entire run than " Code" did in its first weekend punching up $61.6M last summer. " Code" also marked new career-high openings for Hanks and director Ron Howard surpassing the $57.4M of " Toy Story 2" and the $55.1M of " How the Grinch Stole Christmas," respectively. It carried a $125M pricetag.ĭomestically, " Code" generated the thirteenth biggest Friday-to-Sunday opening ever and the second best bow for a non-franchise film after " The Passion of the Christ" which debuted to $83.8M following a Wednesday launch in February 2004. Many religious groups have encouraged people to not see the film, but the publicity may instead have just sparked more curiosity, especially from those who have not read the book. " Code" is the much-anticipated film adaptation of the best-selling book by Dan Brown which has become a pop culture phenomenon since its publication.
Attacking 3,735 theaters, the PG-13 film averaged a scorching $20,616 per location. Sony faced numerous obstacles bringing " The Da Vinci Code" to the big screen but after all was said and done, the studio successfully launched its summer tentpole pic and captured an estimated $77M from North America beating out most expectations. With " Code" and " Hedge" playing well to different audiences, most holdovers suffered steep declines. The North American marketplace was on fire helped also by a solid launch for the animated film " Over the Hedge." The two new releases combined for an eye-popping $114M in ticket sales over the weekend driving the box office to a new high for the year finally giving the film industry a feeling that the summer movie season has arrived. “It became a perfect storm.”īrown’s fictional premise - that Jesus Christ had a child with Mary Magdalene and that their blood line survived through the ages - was a huge hit at bookstores, with more than 40 million copies sold around the world.Despite worldwide protests and bad reviews, the heavily-hyped conspiracy thriller " The Da Vinci Code" attracted legions of fans into theaters this weekend generating the second largest global opening in box office history. “The book became more than a book and the movie became more than a movie,” said Valerie Van Galder, president of domestic marketing at Sony Corp.-owned Columbia. The strong sales came despite - or because of - an onslaught of protests and publicity not seen since another religious movie, Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” earned $84 million domestically during its first weekend in February 2004. It made the all-time top-10 in Britain ($15.7 million) and decidedly non-Christian Japan ($11.3 million). 2 of all time throughout South America, all heavily Catholic territories. 1 opening of all time in Italy ($11.4 million) and Spain ($11 million), and No. In the film’s 90 foreign markets, it ranked as the No.