Box-Office Numbers & Film Music

Three lightning-in-a-bottle faith-based films (2002 thru 2005) that spent 18 weekends grossing at least $10 million at the domestic box-office.

• 5 weekends for Signs (2002)
• 7 weekends for The Passion Of The Christ (2004)
• 6 weekends for The Chronicles Of Narnia (2005)

18 weekends compared to:

• 15 weekends for The Lord Of The Rings trilogy (2001 thru 2003)
• 15 weekends for the Star Wars prequels (1999 thru 2005)
• 17 weekends for the first four Harry Potter films (2001 thru 2005)

TOPPING THE CHARTS

• Signs topped the box-office charts in its 1st, 4th, and 5th weekends.
• The Passion Of The Christ topped the charts in its 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 7th weekends.
• The first Chronicles Of Narnia film from 2005 topped the charts in its 1st and 4th weekends, reclaiming the box-office lead from King Kong.

THE MUSIC

Interesting things about the music from those three lightning-in-a-bottle faith-based films…

• The music by James Newton Howard during the last several minutes of the movie Signs was, for the composer, described as the most difficult get-it-right process he had done at the time.  His previous films included The Fugitive and The Sixth Sense.
• John Debney’s score for The Passion Of The Christ was nominated for an Oscar along with two other nominations for that film, Best Make-up and Best Cinematography.  But in 2005, the Academy decided to make some of the winners that year give their speeches from their seats.  Very strange.
• The Chronicles Of Narnia failed to get any Oscar recognition for its music in 2006.  Not for its score or for any of its songs.  In 2006, the Academy decided that only three songs were worthy of Oscar recognition that year.  Very strange.