With all the hype, protest and poor reviews, The Da Vinci Code still managed to take in a respectable $77 million in its first weekend. That along with the debut of Over the Hedge, propelled the two together to $114 million in ticket sales. It's hard to know if The Da Vinci Code hit its expectations though as it was projected anywhere from $50 million to $100 million for the opening. With those kind of numbers anything could be touted as successful. Next weekend will really be the decider with the extra holiday. If it does good then, it could really be a success.
Opening in 3,735 theaters, it averaged a whopping $20,616 per theater.
With a number of religious groups exhorting their followers to not go see the film, the "Code" already had it made for the first weekend, as historically this type of publicity just brings out more of the curious to see what all the fuss is about.
"The road ahead will not be easy. The Memorial Day holiday weekend will certainly help give Da Vinci a solid second weekend. However, with so many fans of the book rushing theaters immediately to see the film, it may have already burned through much of its total audience. Code dipped 6% on Saturday from its opening Friday which is not too surprising given the upfront demand and media hysteria. But it does not necessarily indicate that the fan base is growing. Word-of-mouth will now be the main factor affecting future sales. The Yahoo Movies average grade from over 13,000 users is a not-so-impressive B-. Nevertheless, after Mission: Impossible III and Poseidon underwhelmed at the box office giving the summer season a sluggish start, The Da Vinci Code kicked things into high gear this weekend with true blockbuster numbers grossing more than the openings of both of those films combined.
"Worldwide, The Da Vinci Code was launched with one of the most aggressive distribution strategies ever planned invading over 12,000 theaters overseas. As a result, the film tallied a staggering $147M internationally putting its worldwide opening at a jaw-dropping $224M. That marked the second largest worldwide launch in history after the $253M of Star Wars Episode III this same weekend one year ago. With more appeal outside of North America than the Jedi flick, Code's overseas opening inched past Episode III to set a new international debut weekend record."
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