In 1988, The Last Temptation of Christ tanked after weeks of angry protests organized by Catholics around the world. This weekend, The Da Vinci Code opened with the had the thirteenth biggest opening weekend in America, ever, and the biggest foreign box office opening of any movie, ever.
I've seen both films, and I'll tell you what--Temptation was a devout hymn to the Catholic faith.
Da Vinci basically treats Catholics like misguided cultists duped a centuries' old conspiracy.
Watch both movies this weekend. Compared to Da Vinci, Temptation seems like a Catholic recruitment film.
What happened?
Did everybody become atheists over the last 15 years?
No!
There was one crucial difference...
MARKETING.
The producers of Da Vinci hired a web-savvy producer named Jonathan Bock who used the web and churches to choreograph an astounding PR stunt--convincing millions of Christian viewers to see a movie that called their religion a sham.
I'll let Peter J. Boyer explain in this brilliant New Yorker article...
"Jonathan Bock, a former studio publicist, had a demonstrated ability to translate Hollywood to the Christian faithful, and to explain Christians to movie people. He had a sophisticated understanding of the relatively small and interconnected circle of Christian opinion leaders, especially those in the new media. Where a studio executive might reflexively equate “Christian leader” with Jerry Falwell, Bock knew that, in important ways, this is a post-televangelist era; a few well-regarded Christian bloggers or scholars, fully conversant with popular culture, can have as much impact as any broadcast Jeremiah."
I'm not entering a religious debate here. Go see both movies.
Temptation was a great movie and Da Vinci was a lousy movie.
One of them had better publicity, leaning heavily on new media sources plugged into the conservative Christian community.
So maybe you have the Great American Novel packed in your closet, but it's gonna stay there until you figure out how to plug into your own community of readers.
Writers and artists need people like Bock, just as much as people like Bock need us to write them good material...
This post was creating using Chartruese's style and clear-headedness...
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