ARTelevision

You may recall my comments about "The...of The..." back on Page 5 of this thread.

Well, it does seem as if I wasn't being satirical after all:

......................

'PASSION' YOUTH APPEAL
Wed Mar 10, 7:00 PM ET

(Variety) Who's seeing "The Passion of the Christ"?


Much has been made of how the pic has brought in older auds who prefer church pews to megaplexes. But the pic is also pulling in younger, nonreligious auds.

It is this bifurcated crowd that has turned Mel Gibson (news)'s crucifixion depiction into a cultural phenomenon which has racked up $224 million in its first two weeks of release.

"It looks surprisingly like the audience for a lot of our films," said Rick King of AMC, nation's second-largest chain. He said the heaviest demographic for "Passion" shows was ages 18-30. "Most of the people I'm seeing look like they've been in a theater before," he said.

Younger filmgoers make up the bulk of "The Passion" crowd, but Bob Berney, whose Newmarket is distributing the pic, said the aud --- as a whole --- is older than average. "The R-rating is limiting younger kids, but it is getting teens and college kids," he said. But, "like ('My Big Fat Greek Wedding') it's also getting an older audience."

Young males who flock to slasher pics seem to be taking an interest in "The Passion," which has been widely characterized as gory by reviewers.

Fangoria editor Anthony Timpone said, "It's sparked an interest in my readership because of the extreme nature of the it as well as the controversy." The magazine hasn't covered "The Passion," but Timpone said horror helmer David Cronenberg (news) recently suggested he should. And at least one horror fan site, E-Splatter.com, has given "The Passion" the thumb's up: "As a horror fan, I was more than satisfied. This is not some kiddie Christ film. This is the real deal."

And Berney is happy to have their business. The strength of the pic, he said, has been its ability to attract both regular and infrequent moviegoers.

The Newmarket exit polls also found that the pic is playing much better among Latino and African-American auds.

"The Latino response has been particularly strong," Berney said. "It has been the strongest group that has said they were going to see it a second time or more."

On opening weekend, he said women outnumbered men in the audience by about 60% to 40%, but that as the pic has played, the aud is now evenly divided between male and female.

Geographically, Berney said the strongest cities have been in the South, like Atlanta and Dallas.

There have been some surprising underperforming cities, however: Salt Lake City, home of the Mormon Church, and Boston, which has a large Catholic community, are not "The Passion's" strongest towns.

.....................

I have this urge to quote what I said back there on Page 5, but it's just a click away...

__________________
create evolution