My answer to that: The Last Temptation of Christ
The church-bashers piled on that movie to such an extent that people who might not have seen it came out in droves. If there'd been no controversy it would have still been a hit, but the incessant hatred poured at the movie by the New York press (remember how they tried to make Gibson somehow guilty for his father's words, and used the term "anti-semitism" in every damned piece on the movie?) riled up the right, and made it the mega-hit of the year.
People want to see The Movie THEY Don't Want You To See, whoever "they" happen to be.
You'd think we'd learn by now that when it comes to movies there's no such thing as bad publicity, since one of "our" movies BENEFITTED from the attempts to quash it.
It was a box-office dud, despite the critical acclaim and enormous free publicity.
Budget
$7,000,000 (estimated)
Gross
$8,373,585 (USA)
In contrast, "The Passion" was critically assailed and also received enormous free publicity.
Budget:
$55,000,000 (production and marketing)
Gross:
$370,274,604