DA VINCI CODE BY THE NUMBERS!

'Da Vinci Code' By the Numbers
What Everyone Is Talking About
By Ann Marie Kerwin

Published: May 24, 2006
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The critics have almost universally panned it, and when it debuted at the Cannes Film Festival, the audience reportedly booed. And yet "The Da Vinci Code" still manages to intrigue. Today on Technorati's most popular, both Dan Brown's book and Ron Howard's movie rank as the most talked about in the blogosphere (495 new links and 205 new links, respectively). In books, the next most talked about title is Brown's "Angels and Demons."

Despite critics, Dan Brown's story continues to draw audiences.


A Google search for "Da Vinci Code" generates 194 million Web pages and 18,300 news stories. Another 47,600 groups have been formed to discuss it.

And it seems U.S. audiences did not listen to critics who told them it was not worth their time, as the Sony Pictures flick took in $77.1 million in its first weekend. Worldwide, the movie took in a total of $224 million in the first weekend. Despite Christian complaints about the story's main premise, that Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene were actually married parents that spawned a bloodline that can be traced back through French nobles, it wasn't enough to keep people from wanting to judge for themselves.

But whether the worldwide sales will continue to boom is a question mark now that countries and territories such as India, Kenya, Poland, Malta, Malaysia, the Solomon Islands and parts of Russia have various groups calling for a ban. And with that many people flocking to see it in the first weekend, if they ended up agreeing with the critics, the word of mouth will not work in Sony's favor.