JESUS HAS STAYING POWER

The Passion of the Christ is having a good Lent, staying at the top of the box office with $31.7 million over the weekend. Mel Gibson’s Aramaic/Latin language film has now down $264 million in North America since its opening, making it the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time. Perhaps you’ve seen something about the movie somewhere.

The week’s highest debut was the Stephen King story-based Secret Window, starring Johnny Depp as an author stalked by another author. As you should know from reading this website, there’s nothing scarier than a writer. Window debuted in second, with $19 million.

Also opening were Frankie Muniz’s Agent Cody Banks: Destination London, which landed at #5 on $8 million and David Mamet’s Spartan, starring Val Kilmer, which opened in narrow release at $2 million, good enough for #10.

Here’s the rest of the top 10: #3 Starsky & Hutch ($16m); #4 Hidalgo ($11.7m); #6 50 First Dates ($5.3m); #7 Twisted ($3.1m); #8 Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen ($2.4m); #9 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($2.05m).