


What was unexpected was just how well the film would do-both at the box office and on DVD. Lewis’ beloved children’s book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It was little surprise then when Walt Disney Pictures announced a partnership with Walden Media to produce an adaptation of C.S. In the early 2000s, studios were finding success adapting fantasy literature to the big screen with the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter franchises. The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) 1 movie in America for four weeks and became the top-grossing Christian film of all time (not counting for inflation). Instead, the movie soared to $117.5 million its first five days, selling more tickets in this short window than Gibson’s Braveheart did over the course of its entire theatrical run. Partially due to these issues, Passion of the Christ was predicted to open in the $20-25 million range. In fact, Gibson had trouble getting a Hollywood studio and distributor to back the project due to the film’s violence (which garnered an “R” rating), its use of subtitles, and worries the movie would be anti-Semitic. Shot on a $30 million budget, the film grossed more than $611 million worldwide.īut the film’s financial success was never a surety. Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ set the standard for how a Christian movie produced after the turn of the century could become a box office success. Pretty impressive for a movie filmed six decades ago. On its latest showing in 2017, the airing continued to generate revenue by drawing more than five million viewers. The Ten Commandments has been shown annually on network television around Passover and Easter every year since 1973. Perhaps most surprising of all though was the film’s long-term success. While Paramount Pictures hoped The Ten Commandments would make up for its staggering production costs-the highest of any movie ever made at the time-the film still defied expectations at the box office as it became the top-grossing movie not just of the year, but of the decade. 6 spot of all time at the box office for adjusted revenue. Accounting for inflation, The Ten Commandments earned the equivalence of $1.2 billion in today’s dollars, putting the epic starring Charlton Heston in the No.
