The Gamut

'Da Vinci Code' Opening Beats Expectation

LOS ANGELES - "The Da Vinci Code" banked an estimated $29 million at the box office on its first day in theaters, an industry official said Saturday, positioning the film to turn in the strongest opening weekend for any movie this year.

Preliminary results showed that the movie, based on a runaway best-seller and starring multiple-Oscar winner Tom Hanks, appealed to moviegoers despite lackluster reviews.

The Columbia Pictures movie opened in 3,735 theaters in the U.S. and grossed a respectable average of $7,764 per screen.

For the math challenged, that's 28 million dollars.

The Passion of the Christ did 84 million in it's opening weekend in 3,043 theatres, but it opened on a holiday weekend.

The Chronicles of Narnia did 65.5 million in its opening weekend on 3,316 screens.

If we assume that DaVinci did as well on both days, it's two day opening gorsses will come in just under these other films, and it is on more screens. So apparently movies painted as anti-Christian don't have quite the appeal of Christian allegory wrapped in pagan symbolism or violently anti-Semitic Christian death-wish tomes.

Still, I don't imagine the champions of Opus Dei are exactly thrilled with these numbers.