To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - The Omega Code grosses $2.4 million on opening night
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 13:10:56 -0500

From: owner-bpr@philologos.org

Moviegoers turned out in droves over the weekend for The Omega
Code, pushing the Christian suspense thriller into 10th place on
the box-office leaders list, USA Today reports. The $7 million
film, which stars Michael York, Casper Van Dien, and Catherine
Oxenberg, grossed $2.4 million in its opening, an average of
$7,745 per screen, the highest of the Top 10 movies.

..The film is an effort of the Trinity Broadcasting Network to
provide an alternative to Hollywood's standard on-screen fare.
TBN founder Paul Crouch and his son Matt produced the film,
which features an apocalyptic plot, lots of explosions, and
prophets who quote Scripture.

..Omega's success caught mainstream Hollywood unaware. The
ticket sales were "David beats Goliath," said Gitesh Pandya,
editor of the Box Office Guru Web site. "They're really almost
beating the studios at their own game."

..But the Christian community anticipated Omega's release.
Some 2,000 volunteers plastered posters around the country,
contacted church youth groups, and encouraged non-Christian
friends to attend. TBN also regularly has touted the film to its
70 million viewers, encouraging them to buy advance tickets or
download posters and tracts from the TBN website.

..The PR paid off. Pastors in Dallas, Atlanta, and Portland,
Ore., each bought 1,000 advance movie tickets to distribute to
their congregations. An Oklahoma CEO purchased 1,000 tickets for
his employees. A Los Angeles woman gave out 1,600 tickets to
youth groups, who arrived by the busload. Others who bought
smaller blocks of tickets told TBN they would give them to
friends who are not Christians in hopes of evangelizing them.

..The biblical-theme movie "is what mainstream America wants,"
Michael Harpster, marketing chief for Providence Entertainment,
the movie's distributor, told USA Today. "How many people go to
church every week? A whole lot more than go to the movies," he
said. The Omega Code will expand from 300 theaters to 400 by
early November.

http://www.religiontoday.com/CurrentNewsSummary/

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