NewsMax.com
7. Passionate Signs of Ticket Sales
After over a year of unprecedented attacks, Mel Gibson's film "The Passion of the Christ" is showing all of the signs of a blockbuster.
Even though the normal studio distribution doors were closed to Gibson, the film will appear in close to 3,000 U.S. theaters, putting the foreign-language movie in the same category as a major Hollywood release.
Independent distributor Newmarket Films has increased the number of prints of the film to more than 4,000, as advance ticket sales sell at a phenomenal pace.
Online ticket service Fandango has indicated that "The Passion of the Christ" has become its second-biggest film in advance sales, just behind "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King."
The Left Coast Report hears that a sign on a theater marquee somewhere in one of the "red" states reads "There's a new Lord in town."