Marketing Principles on Passion of the 
Marketing Principles on HBR Case Study: Passion of the Christ
Author: Manana C. Lavric
Masters, II Griffiths School of Management
Oradea, 2014
How can you transform Cinderella into the Ball Queen? How can you transform the outcome of the release of a Christian movie shot in two dead languages, with no-name actors, rejected by ruling Hollywood production studios from disaster and turn it into a blockbuster far above The
Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, into the highest grossing R-rated movie of all time, into
$370,782,930 revenues at domestic box office?
I.
“The Passion of the Christ” was the complete creation of Mel Gibson, a unique project personally financed driven as the result of 12 years of depression struggle of the star which incorporated the loyal story-telling of the last 12 hours of the life of Jesus of Nazareth in
Jerusalem, year 30 A.D.
The movie did not seem to have a bright future and a long life in the movie industry of 2000s. In
In 2002, the movie industry meant intense competition; the movie maker industry and independent studios were dominated by giant studios: Paramount, Sony, Buena Vista, Universal,
20th Century Fox and Warner Bros dealt with financing, producing and distributing their own movies. Even more, the number of movies dropped and the total admissions went up as the admission price. In this picture, big studios had to find multiple revenue sources to assure their profits and expanded to pay television, home video, video games and merchandising. With religious movies practically inexistent in box office charts since The Ten Commandments and
Ben Hur in the 1950, The Passion of the Christ needed to make some really good marketing strategy in order to assure even a modest spot on the Hollywood stage.
With no certainty that his movie will even be finally released, Mel Gibson started in the summer of 2003 a brainchild testing campaign: he concentrated on an extensive invitation-based campaign of pre-screenings among Christian leaders,
Author: Manana C. Lavric
Masters, II Griffiths School of Management
Oradea, 2014
How can you transform Cinderella into the Ball Queen? How can you transform the outcome of the release of a Christian movie shot in two dead languages, with no-name actors, rejected by ruling Hollywood production studios from disaster and turn it into a blockbuster far above The
Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, into the highest grossing R-rated movie of all time, into
$370,782,930 revenues at domestic box office?
I.
“The Passion of the Christ” was the complete creation of Mel Gibson, a unique project personally financed driven as the result of 12 years of depression struggle of the star which incorporated the loyal story-telling of the last 12 hours of the life of Jesus of Nazareth in
Jerusalem, year 30 A.D.
The movie did not seem to have a bright future and a long life in the movie industry of 2000s. In
In 2002, the movie industry meant intense competition; the movie maker industry and independent studios were dominated by giant studios: Paramount, Sony, Buena Vista, Universal,
20th Century Fox and Warner Bros dealt with financing, producing and distributing their own movies. Even more, the number of movies dropped and the total admissions went up as the admission price. In this picture, big studios had to find multiple revenue sources to assure their profits and expanded to pay television, home video, video games and merchandising. With religious movies practically inexistent in box office charts since The Ten Commandments and
Ben Hur in the 1950, The Passion of the Christ needed to make some really good marketing strategy in order to assure even a modest spot on the Hollywood stage.
With no certainty that his movie will even be finally released, Mel Gibson started in the summer of 2003 a brainchild testing campaign: he concentrated on an extensive invitation-based campaign of pre-screenings among Christian leaders,