Australia: Mel Gibson's sado-masochistic fantasy has failed to impress Australian cinema-goers.
In stark contrast to Kidman's success, The Passion of the Christ is struggling to make a mark down under. Mel Gibson's Gospel picture has been only a moderate success in Australia and notably failed to benefit from the Easter boost that propelled it back to the top of the American box office this week. In fact, The Passion of the Christ could only make number six in the Aussie chart, with its A$805,000 (£332,000) weekend gross easily eclipsed by Starsky and Hutch, which opened on A$3.5m (£1.4m).The theory that there would be a Jesus revival at the flicks at the weekend was a myth,sniffed the Sydney Morning Herald.
In brief: Schrader's Exorcist comes back to life - The Guardian, 15th April 2004.
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We're generally unimpressed with religious extremists down here, as witnessed by the delight taken in the national sport of finding ways to scare, embarrass and mortify door-knocking god-botherers, so I'm not terribly surprised to see The Passion of the Christ turned out to be a dud at the box office (even though figures would have been artificially inflated by freebie church promotions). But how laughable is it to be beaten, not only by Starksy and Hutch, but a complete dog like Scooby Doo 2? You've got to laugh.