(NEWSMAX.com) - Despite the fact that Mel Gibson's controversial film is scheduled to open in over 2,000 theaters on Feb. 25, if you live in certain areas of the nation you may have trouble finding one of them nearby.
So opines Fox News entertainment editor Roger Friedman, who explains that anybody who lives on the west side of Manhattan, for example, or in most of western Long Island, or Beverly Hills and wants to see "The Passion of the Christ," in a nearby movie house will be out of luck.
When the film opens on Ash Wednesday, Friedman reports that "it will be in very select theatres only."
In Manhattan, for example the film will be seen only in a handful of out-of-the-way-theaters: "one in Times Square, two in fringe areas of the East Side, one second-run theatre at Broadway and 100th St. and one in Harlem. There will be one screen below 34th St, and none from 42nd St. to 96th St. on the West Side." This, he writes, excludes such prestige theaters as the Ziegfeld, the Paris, the Beekman and Sony Lincoln Square.
In suburban Nassau County, Long Island, on either the south or north shore, and in affluent Westchester County, he says, New York theater-goers will also be hard-pressed to find the film.
According to Friedman , Gibson's distributors have targeted black neighborhoods and poor neighborhoods and cites as an example that "all the Magic Johnson theatres in the country will show the movie, as will multiplexes in urban centers."
In Chicago, he writes, the film will be shown in only two theaters, so Chicagoans will have to go to the suburbs to see "The Passion of the Christ." Ditto for "the wealthier and trendier parts of Los Angeles such as Beverly Hills and Century City. Those who are curious will have to seek their "Passion" in odd places, in out-of-the-way cineplexes. You won't be able to see it at the Beverly Center, for example. But four theatres in economically less desirable San Jose, California will show the film."
Friedman concludes that the strategy "seems designed to keep the film out of neighborhoods that are considered Jewish, upscale, or liberal, and he cites as an example "typically Jewish areas like Boca Raton," which he says will show it in one theater, "if at all."
Other areas of the nation, however, will be saturated. Friedman reported that Tennessee is targeted for the film with eight locations in Memphis and four each in Nashville and Knoxville. The number of theaters in many more states like Florida, Kentucky, Alabama and Oklahoma is high, especially in rural areas. In Florida, for example, Jacksonville and Tampa – more northern and central cities – will have "Passion" in four or more theaters.
In Miami, where there's a huge Catholic-Cuban population, the film will play in 10 theaters. and in Houston and the Dallas-Fort Worth areas of Texas, there are the same number of theaters or more. Texas, in fact, will offer the most opportunities in the country to see the film.
Friedman guesses that the film's distributor, Newmarket Films, chose a pattern that "concentrates heavily on the South and the Midwest, focusing on the Bible Belt and locations where [the film] will meet with the least resistance. West Virginia will have about three times as many theatres as Rhode Island, for example. Vermonters have three theatres while their more conservative next-door neighbors in New Hampshire, a state equal in size, will have twelve."
In Friedman's view, Mel Gibson "has consciously created a divisive atmosphere for the presentation of his film. For example, he has screened the movie widely for groups on the religious right while avoiding all mainstream groups, as well as film critics for fear of poor advance word."
That "fear" of course conflicts with the rave reviews expressed by the overwhelming majority of those who have seen the film and come away awed by its power and extraordinary cinematic excellence.
