The Passion made $125 million in five days...

I can definitely see TDVC challenges Revenge of the Sith's opening Friday of $33.5m: neither has midnight showings (since it is ROTS' second day), TDVC's fanbase can match what ROTS had left after the $50m opening day absorbed a lot of the fans, the number of showings are similar.

im still sticking with my 66 million opening weekend but im lowering my total to 190 million

You honestly think that TDVC's "fanbase" (a bit of a misleading term) will match Star Wars during the day on Friday?

Pass it when you're done.

The # of soldouts and advance ticket sales are similar and clearly suggesting that. Again, this is comparing to Star Wars' second day, not the first.

Okay, this has entered the realm of bizzarro land. If anything this argument makes me lower my DVC estimate...

While I think that Da Vinci will do big business, Over The Hedge will cut away alot of its audience, while last year both the Over The Hedge crowd and the Da Vinci Code crowd would have went to SW. So I'm not quite sure it can come close to SW's opening, as Over The Hedge imo looks for a $55-60 m opening.

I am with xiayun on this one and certainly those who think that this will open to lessa than $75 million are smoking something.

What part of Da Vinci's audience is gonna get cut away by Over The Hedge?

I'm going to go with hardly any

I didn't realize 6 year olds were going to a film about conspiracies involving Mary of Magdalene and Jesus Christ. Now that you guys have pointed out that they were going there until Over The Hedge came out, I am lowering my prediction to about 34 mill OW for DVC.

34 Million the whole weekend?

"While I think that Da Vinci will do big business, Over The Hedge will cut away alot of its audience, while last year both the Over The Hedge crowd and the Da Vinci Code crowd would have went to SW. So I'm not quite sure it can come close to SW's opening, as Over The Hedge imo looks for a $55-60 m opening."

For those that were reading my post in its CONTEXT, would realize that when talk was brought up of comparable TDC and SW Fridays, I was merely pointing out that SW had the push of a huge family crowd as well, while families will be going to Over The Hedge, and that The Da Vinci Code will not be able to make the most of that crowd. CGI films skew greatly toward teen audiences as well. Da Vinci Code is now a pop culture phenom and is getting pushed to almost all demos at this point, so I'm sure a few younger audience members (preteens/teens) would be interested in seeing it as well. But with Over The Hedge opening to $55 m + imo this weekend, that will take away part of that demographic which would have seen SW, but will choose Over The Hedge over TDC.

Yep, whole weekend. Not a penny more.

I've changed my prediction eight times in the past hour...

I have it at 89.6 mil right now, a $24,000 PTA flat.

$30m Friday and $85m weekend.

It will pass $90 million...

TDVC is now officially more searched than Wikipedia.

I can't believe it made #3 on the overall buzz list.

Da Vinci Code really picked the perfect time to open. It will open huge, have a nice Monday due to Victoria Day holiday in Canada (doesn't inflate like Memorial Day does, but it ensures a better than average monday drop) and then has a 4-day Memorial Day weekend, and then June starts which is the period when numbers altogether, including weekdays, start to inflate due to summer. This really is the great weekend of the year for any film.

PEACE, Mike.

Agreed. Also, I booked my tickets tonight and will pick them up tomorrow. The AMC I got them from already is sold out for the 7:30 and 7:45 shows and the 9:15 shows. I'm sure that the others are close. I can't wait!!

In the past years Shrek, AOTC, The Matrix Reloaded, Shrek 2 and ROTS opened on that weekend.

Prtety impressive.

Next year Shrek 3

Batman Begins 2 should secure this date for 2008 or Indy IV.

I agree this weekend has seen very high grossing films in the past few years

Oh, lord. I forgot about the Canadian holiday on Monday. It's going to have a soft drop on Sunday and Monday (Sith dropped 15.9% and 59%), meaning that I have to change my prediction again.

Victoria Day weekend is the best time to open a film in NA. You have huge grosses for a traditionally strong film, a four day weekend in Canada, and then another holiday weekend the weekend after. That translates into huge dollars.