The Gamut

From Thursday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazete:

Ms. Irey, of Carroll Township, said Mr. Murtha was denying the Marines due process and had put American troops in danger with his remarks.

"John Murtha was a patriot," Ms. Irey said at the Press Club. "...But many years have passed and I say again my opponent has lost his way because the comments and actions of late are not that of a patriot. Rather they serve to aid and comfort our enemies."

"These inflammatory remarks read around the world not only put Americans lives at risk," she said, "but will also be used as a recruiting tool for terrorist organizations."

Fuck You, Whore!

Official: Iraq civilian deaths unjustified

Military investigators probing the deaths last November of about two dozen Iraqi civilians have evidence that points toward unprovoked murders by Marines, a senior defense official said Friday.

Would ignoring criminal actions by our troops be the patriotic thing to do? Would allowing the murder of innocents be acceptable collateral damage for you, you ignorant slut?

Well, the weekend toatals are in for "The DaVinci Code".

Opening Weekend: $77,073,388
(3,735 theaters, $20,635 average)

The film's opening weekend exceeded the opening weekend for "The Chonicles of Narnia", but fell slightly short of the opening weekend for "The Passion of he Christ". However, the total worldwide grosses for Passion of the Christ after 22 weeks in release was $612 million dollars. The DaVinci Code has been out just six days and has already earned just shy of $250 million worldwide.

Most interesting to me is that foreign sales of the Passion are less than the domestic while it is reversed for DaVinci. And in both cases the differences are huge. So apparently in America movies painted as anti-Christian still trump Christian allegory wrapped in pagan symbolism, but in Europe it even trumps violently anti-Semitic Christian death-wish tomes.

Oh to be in Europe now that Enlightenment is here.

'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.