SUBMITTED BY Timbo

February 26, 2004 — "The Passion of the Christ" made a whopping $23.6m, plus another $3m in private screenings, on its first day of release. Will it keep it up?

The $26.6 million U.S. and Canada total released Thursday was well above distributor Newmarket Film's preliminary estimate of $15 million to $20 million a day earlier.

"We wanted to be a little strategically conservative," said Rob Schwartz, head of distribution for Newmarket, which Gibson hired after no Hollywood studio would handle the film because of its divisive subject matter. "Prior to the opening, I don't think we could have counted on a $26 (million) to $27 million opening, but we'll take it."

"The Passion" fell far short of the single-day record of $43.6 million held by "Spider-Man," but Gibson's film already has passed the receipts of other modern religious films over their entire runs, among them "The Last Temptation of Christ" ($8.4 million), "The Omega Code" ($12.5 million) and "Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie" ($25.6 million).

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