‘Last Temptation’ Draws Mostly Sold-Out Houses

Martin Scorsese’s controversial film “The Last Temptation of Christ” opened to mostly sold-out audiences over the weekend, according to preliminary box-office reports.

Universal Pictures, which released the film, predicted that its final tally for Friday through Sunday will be between $400,000 and $450,000, or $45,000 to $50,000 per screen.

Phil Garfinkle, senior vice president of Entertainment Data Inc., which collects and reports box-office figures, estimated that the film grossed roughly $250,000 during Friday and Saturday at the nine theaters where it opened. Per screen, that averages out to nearly $28,000.

The Cineplex Odeon in Century City broke records for one-day grosses on both Friday and Saturday, according to Universal officials.

Final box-office figures for four cities--Toronto, Montreal, Seattle and Minneapolis--were not available Sunday. But theaters in the five other cities showing the film--Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington--reported a two-day total of $180,000, Garfinkle said.

Theater owners reported that the film played to sold-out or near-capacity audiences, he added.

Universal originally had planned to release the film in September. But studio officials decided to open it last Friday amid mounting protests over the film by fundamentalist religious groups. Universal reported that protests were organized throughout the country, but there was no violence.