Besides being a significant actor, Mel Gibson is also widely regarded as one of the most successful directors in Hollywood. The Mad Max fame didn’t deliver a single flop project and is also a holder of a basket of prestigious awards. But Gibson faced great difficulty in finding a studio to back his 2004 epic drama The Passion of the Christ until he took matters into his own hands.
It didn’t take long for Mel Gibson to get the fruit of his hard work as The Passion of the Christ turned out to be a landmark project in the history of independent movies. Even after being subjected to wide controversy, the movie dominated the box office figures.
Making The Passion of the Christ was not easy for Mel Gibson
The Passion of the Christ centered around the biblical tale of the final twelve hours before Jesus Christ’s death. Due to the controversial nature of the movie’s idea, not a single studio wanted to get involved with the project. In the end, Braveheart fame had to invest his own resources which led to the release of a huge box office success.
Speaking about The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson spoke out that it’s such a project which nobody wants to put their hands on.
“This is a film about something that nobody wants to touch, shot in two dead languages.”
Besides the controversies, Mel Gibson also faced problems after some accusations of antisemitism. He decided to distribute the movie on his own along with the help of Newmarket Films. Gibson put $30M into the production of the movie with $15M into the marketing of the movie. The Expendables 3 star also took the help of many church groups to promote the movie. Ultimately, the movie presented itself as a big slap to all the studios that rejected it and earned an enormous figure of $612.1 million.
It can’t be denied that Mel Gibson’s movie passed an extraordinarily difficult task after being embroiled in a horde of controversies. Despite the mixed reviews received by The Passion of the Christ due to its intense violence and representation of the Jews, the Jim Caviezel movie made Gibson earn a massive profit. He got $300M after paying 50% to his co-distribution company Newmarket Films. The magnificent success of the 2004 movie has also led it to receive a sequel which is in development presently.
What do we know about The Passion of the Christ 2?
Focusing on the three days between Jesus Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection is currently in development. Earlier this year, it was reported by ET Canada, that Mel Gibson is developing the sequel to the 2004 movie which was expected to start filming in late Spring this year.
Following the success of its predecessor as well as the critical and commercial success of Gibson’s last Hacksaw Ridge, it is expected that The Passion of the Christ 2 is highly likely to make another set of box office records. The movie is slated to drop sometime in the next year with Jim Caviezel returning to his role as Jesus if the production schedule goes as planned.
The Passion of the Christ can be streamed on Amazon Prime.
Source: NBC News
