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Box Office: Mel Gibson’s The Resurrection of the Christ to start production; Revisiting The Passion of the Christ’s success
Mel Gibson’s The Resurrection of the Christ will begin filming in August. As the sequel moves forward, here's a look at how The Passion of the Christ performed at the box office.
Mel Gibson’s sequel to The Passion of the Christ—The Resurrection of the Christ—is scheduled to begin filming in Italy this August, per Manuela Cacciamani, CEO of Rome’s Cinecittà Studios.
“I can confirm that the next film directed by Mel Gibson, produced by Icon Productions, The Resurrection of Christ, will be shot entirely at Cinecittà starting in August and will require many theaters and stage constructions,” she said in an interview with Il Sole 24 Ore, an Italian newspaper.
Amid the news, here’s a look back at how the original film in the franchise performed.
The 2004 epic biblical drama starring Jim Caviezel as Jesus of Nazareth made USD 612.1 million at the worldwide box office on a humble USD 30 million budget. Out of this revenue, USD 370.8 million came from the United States alone, and the film remained the highest-grossing R-rated film in the domestic market (US and Canada) for 20 years before the record was broken by Deadpool & Wolverine in 2024 with a domestic gross of USD 395.6 million.
Despite restrictions in many countries due to its provocative theme, The Passion of the Christ’s commercial triumph is not only commendable but worthy of a case study.
The film was the highest-grossing non-English-language film of all time until it was surpassed by Wolf Warrior 2 in 2017.
Monica Bellucci, Maia Morgenstern, Sergio Rubini, and more rounded out the Aramaic-language film’s cast.
In an interview with renowned podcast personality Joe Rogan, Gibson said that the sequel film is very ambitious and that the story follows the fall of the angels to their deaths.
The filmmaker expressed that he believes in order to tell the story holistically, he has to start with the fall of the angels, which means the plot will unfold in a completely different realm, with the characters exploring Hell and Sheol.
“I think I have ideas about how to do that and how to evoke things and emotions in people from the way you depict it and the way you shoot it. So I’ve been thinking about it for a long time,” he shared. Gibson acknowledged that the process is not going to be easy, but he’ll take a crack at it anyway.
Gibson revealed his plans to recast Caviezel as Jesus and use CGI de-aging techniques to make him appear unscathed by the 20 years that have passed.
The Passion of the Christ is often billed as the film that opened the door for faith-based media in Hollywood.
Throwback: The Strange Rule That Kept Mel Gibson Away From Richard Gere And Denzel Washington
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