This year's first can't-miss movie of the season is no mere movie-it's a blockbuster event of biblical proportions. Mel Gibson's controversial movie 'The Passion of the Christ' grossed more than $200 million in its first two weeks, causing serious speculation in Hollywood about the possibility that 'Passion' could become the biggest box-office attraction of all time.

The unusual success of an action film based on religious themes has everyone wondering: Is Hollywood is about to get religion? Within a week of Passion's release ABC aired a TV movie on the Apostle Judas, and Disney announced plans to produce a big screen version of C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe-a sort of Harry Potter saga with a Christian allegorical subtext. It's also rumored that Gibson's next film could go back to the biblical period to dramatize the life and martyrdom of the Apostles, or possibly reenact the biblical history of the valiant Maccabeans-rebel fighters now memorialized by the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.

Indeed, Gibson's newest blockbuster may be the start of a new film franchise. 'Passion' proves there is a mainstream market for faith-based entertainment that until now has been untapped by the moguls of the entertainment industry. Yet whatever Gibson's movie says about a niche for religious epics, it is unlikely that any future faith-based film could generate the buzz of 'Passion.' No amount of marketing ingenuity can produce free publicity and awareness like the controversy surrounding the release of Gibson's film.

(March, 2004)