'The Da Vinci Code' to rock?

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The critics panned it. Church leaders called for it to be banned. Yet the makers of 'The Da Vinci Code' are confident they have found the box office Holy Grail with one of the biggest openings in cinema history.

"We have a great worldwide story to tell," said Jeff Blake, vice chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment which made the film.

"It's going to be one of the biggest worldwide openings ever," he told Reuters by telephone on May 22, 06.

"We're really in territory that hasn't been travelled," Blake said, adding that the performance was particularly impressive given that 'The Da Vinci Code' was neither an action movie nor one aimed mainly at young audiences.

Still from The Da Vinci CodeInitial box office figures for the key US market were released later yesterday, but Blake was confident the film, with an estimated budget of 125 million dollars, would do well there.

"People had set a target of 60 million dollars which would be considered the base-case opening in the United States," he said, referring to the figure for the opening weekend.

"We're well in excess of the 60 million dollars figure".

Box office watchers had predicted an opening of between 50 million dollars and 80 million dollars in the United States for the most eagerly awaited movie of the year.

The US box office opening weekend record was won by "Spider Man" in 2002, which earned 115 million dollars.

Industry experts predicted poor reviews of 'The Da Vinci Code', which had its world premiere at the Cannes film festival on Thursday, would do little to dampen enthusiasm for the adaptation of Dan Brown's religious bestseller starring Tom Hanks.

The industry is watching its performance particularly closely after the first two summer blockbusters -- "Mission: Impossible III" and "Poseidon" -- fell short of expectations.

"The Da Vinci Code" opened across the world on May 18 and 19, and Blake said it had already broken records in Italy and Spain.

He also highlighted Latin America and China as territories where the controversial movie drew large crowds.

PUBLICITY MONEY CAN'T BUY Brown's novel, which has sold more than 40 million dollars copies, suggests Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had a child by her, and that elements of the Catholic Church had resorted to murder in order to hide the truth over the centuries.

The premise led to calls from inside the Vatican for the book and film to be boycotted.

Christian groups in India, Thailand and South Korea also protested, and some countries have insisted on a disclaimer being added to the credits to make clear the story is fiction.

Movie experts said it was the kind of publicity money could not buy, but some wondered if poor initial reviews would hit sales.

'The Da Vinci Code' was variously described as "grim", "unwieldy" and "plodding", though one reviewer bucked the trend and said "You'll Louvre It!" Director Ron Howard called the poor early reviews "frustrating" and "disappointing", but added that what the critics say and what audiences do don't always coincide.

"There's a disconnect between the audience response and the critics," he told Reuters during Cannes. "The critics are running a bit more to the negative and with audiences we've been running much more to the positive." The biggest grossing film in history is 'Titanic', which earned $1.8 billion worldwide.

Mel Gibson's 'The Passion of the Christ', also controversial based on its religious content and interpretation, ranks 28th in the list of top earning movies, according to www.boxofficemojo.com.

It sold 612 million dollars of tickets globally.