Posted on 03/11/2004 7:39:28 AM PST by truthandlife
Who's seeing "The Passion of the Christ"?
Much has been made of how the pic has brought in older auds who prefer church pews to megaplexes. But the pic is also pulling in younger, nonreligious auds.
It is this bifurcated crowd that has turned Mel Gibson (news)'s crucifixion depiction into a cultural phenomenon which has racked up $224 million in its first two weeks of release.
"It looks surprisingly like the audience for a lot of our films," said Rick King of AMC, nation's second-largest chain. He said the heaviest demographic for "Passion" shows was ages 18-30. "Most of the people I'm seeing look like they've been in a theater before," he said.
Younger filmgoers make up the bulk of "The Passion" crowd, but Bob Berney, whose Newmarket is distributing the pic, said the aud --- as a whole --- is older than average. "The R-rating is limiting younger kids, but it is getting teens and college kids," he said. But, "like ('My Big Fat Greek Wedding') it's also getting an older audience."
Young males who flock to slasher pics seem to be taking an interest in "The Passion," which has been widely characterized as gory by reviewers.
Fangoria editor Anthony Timpone said, "It's sparked an interest in my readership because of the extreme nature of the it as well as the controversy." The magazine hasn't covered "The Passion," but Timpone said horror helmer David Cronenberg (news) recently suggested he should. And at least one horror fan site, E-Splatter.com, has given "The Passion" the thumb's up: "As a horror fan, I was more than satisfied. This is not some kiddie Christ film. This is the real deal."
And Berney is happy to have their business. The strength of the pic, he said, has been its ability to attract both regular and infrequent moviegoers.
The Newmarket exit polls also found that the pic is playing much better among Latino and African-American auds.
"The Latino response has been particularly strong," Berney said. "It has been the strongest group that has said they were going to see it a second time or more."
On opening weekend, he said women outnumbered men in the audience by about 60% to 40%, but that as the pic has played, the aud is now evenly divided between male and female.
Geographically, Berney said the strongest cities have been in the South, like Atlanta and Dallas.
There have been some surprising underperforming cities, however: Salt Lake City, home of the Mormon Church, and Boston, which has a large Catholic community, are not "The Passion's" strongest towns.
Liberal christians are no different than liberals in general - with them its all about politics, and they automatically hate everything conservative.
They've caught a whiff of conservativism surrounding this film & accompanying hoopla, so presto, they're opposed to it.
And, as usual, the truth of it skips right past them.
Well, I would hold off on forming opinions about those cities based on this newstory. Remember the old saying "don't believe everything you read in a newspaper"
This statement has no source, and it seems like the kind of parting cheap shot that a securlarist journalist would take without knowing it. It might be down comparitively speaking, but I doubt its as bad as this makes it sound there.
My sweet and very Catholic mother-in-law went to see The Passion yesterday. When I spoke with her she said that she would have to go and see it again immediately. Curious, I asked her what was the last movie she saw at the theater. "The Shoes of the Fisherman" - 1968 - starring Anthony Quinn.
Great news!
The idea that a lot of these young adults are horror-film addicts drawn in by the gore seems like a big stretch.
That's because Boston has a large number of 'nominal' Catholics. They identify as such because of family history, but don't practice their faith much.
The Newman club oughta rent a bus to help them get there!
Great movie!
We'll probably go next week. Our daughter's Youth Minister assigned a viewing of it for her Confirmation class's 'Faith and Pop Culture' Class. I can't wait to hear what the kids thought of it.
Yes, but as I said, liberals politicize everything.
I agree, but I would like to add these are not REAL Christians. If you denied me on earth, I will deny you in heaven!
Honestly, what do think christ is more interested in, Movie attendance or . . . anything else? I really don't know that anyone is going to grow closer to the lord in the theater than, say, with an hour spent in the New Testament.
At my school, I know that InterVarsity and Campus Crusade did precisely that.
My criterion for who is a Christian is, "deciding to be a Christian, and to trust God to 'save to the uttermost' through Jesus Christ." Nothing in there about going to a movie, but plenty about nurturing one's own faith. Seeing the movie might be compared to going to a revival service. I myself have not gone to see it, but am confident that one day I will - most likely, at this rate, in the form of a DVD.
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