Gibson's Passion takes £2m

Published on Tuesday 30 March 2004 01:00

MEL Gibson’s controversial film The Passion of the Christ has topped the UK box office with takings of more than £2 million on its opening weekend.

It opened across the country on Friday and has so far taken 2,019,803, the highest ever opening for a subtitled film in the UK.

Many screenings were sold-out over the weekend as churches block-booked tickets.

The film cost just 14 million to make but has already taken 147 million in the United States alone since its release on Ash Wednesday, topping the box-office chart there for three consecutive weeks.

Most cinemas in the UK have booked the film for two weeks but if turnout mirrors the US, Gibson’s movie will still be showing after Easter.

Meanwhile, it was claimed that "spiritual forces" could have caused a projector to break down during one of the free screenings of the film laid on by a group of churches.

Organisers from St Luke’s Church in Maidstone, Kent, said the Saturday evening screening coincided with the only period during the weekend when there was no "prayer cover" for the film.

The projector’s bulb had blown halfway through the 5:15pm showing of the film on Saturday, forcing about 300 people to leave the cinema.

Russ Hughes, the director of worship and prophecy at St Luke’s, said that over the weekend teams of people had been praying for the screenings, in order to "protect" equipment and boost their success.

"While I definitely wouldn’t say it was a demon or the devil that did it, I would not rule out the possibility that there were spiritual forces involved," he said.