Screenhead’s Decade of Cinema Part 5: 2004
Dec 26th, 2009 by Peter D. Marshall
This article was written by Eoin O’Faolain.
Continuing in our look back on the last decade, Screenhead examines the major movie events of the year 2004.
“Mel Gibson’s religious personal life meant very little to film fans at first, who were pretty happy seeing Mel rip up the screen in the cop action series Lethal Weapon, or in the post-apocalyptic Mad Max films. But all that changed in 2004, when Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ was released. Charting the supposed last days of Christian saviour Jesus Christ, the film was made using the languages of the time (Aramaic, Latin, and Hebrew), and thus was considered box-office poison by many studios.
Gibson funded a lot of the film himself, and was unable to go for a full-scale marketing strategy. Luckily for him, he didn’t need it, as churches around the nation were doing all the promotion for him. Opening on religious holiday Ash Wednesday, the film made $65 million in 3 days, and eventually made over $600 million worldwide, making it the most successful independent movie of all time.”
Read rest of article from Screenhead.
