The Da Vinci Code made $30 million last night in the United States on its opening, exceeding expectations of a worn out Columbia Pictures.
This means a possible $90 million weekend, which is what this column predicted to several Columbia execs in the last few days. But they were so disappointed by media reaction to the film that they'd all but revised down to a $60 million weekend at best.
But readers of The Da Vinci Code are rabid, and it seemed likely to this reporter that they'd go in droves to see their favorite book envisioned on screen. My guess is they will tell their friends to go too. The media reaction to Da Vinci was an aberration, and how it happened may yet be analyzed in marketing meetings for all the wrong things it manifested.
