Chronic Murmuring

Passion Copycats

Several people connected to Hollywood, such as the president of Newmarket films, are predicting The Passion's success to spawn a series of religiously-themed imitators. The fact that Titanic - the highest grossing film of all time (unadjusted for inflation, that is) - did not lead to copycats doesn't matter, since Titanic cost so much to produce (north of $200 million). Titanic was more of a classic hit - very risky, and unpredictable. But Gibson's film is much less risky. It cost a mere $30 million, and required only a single star to power the film, as well as a producer of uncompromising spiritual vision. As far as feature films go, cost-wise, that's peanutes. Plus, it's been repeatedly noted in the press that a significant share of The Passion's audience are individuals who haven't stepped foot in a theater in ages. The market for religious commodities is quite large, but some wonder if Hollywood has forgotten this group, which might partly explain how Gibson managed to do so well with this movie. This statistic was particularly interesting: survey data suggest that nearly 40% of the population regularly participate in church or synagogue worship. That's nearly four times as many people in regular, weekly attendance to religious services than people waiting in line at the local movie theater. The article reads:

"Until now, most producers disregarded this faith-based audience, claiming that they seldom went to the movies anyway so it made no sense to appeal to them. The explosive response to The Passion blows that theory to smithereens: The movie's projected box office gross is some $400 million in its North American theatrical run alone."

So what can we expect down the pipe? Probably a lot of crap, but maybe also some diamonds in the rough as well. Walt Disney (perhaps partly out of guilt for passing on such no-brainers as Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter) will be releasing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, scheduled for Christmas 2005.