Ticket sales record:

• Showdown: The Passion of The Christ vs. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Box Office Mojo)
  
  
• Many more stats | Including Top R-rated openings, Top 5-day openings, Top opening weekends, and other statistics (Box Office Mojo)
  
  
• Passion film beats Rings record | Mel Gibson's The Passion of The Christ has broken the US five-day box office record held by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (BBC)
  
  
• 'Passion' grows to $125 million at box office | Mel Gibson's "The Passion of The Christ" keeps on defying conventions (Hollywood Reporter)
  
  
• 'Passion' hauls in $117.5M in five days | "The Passion" put up the second-best five-day figures for a movie opening on Wednesday, behind last year's "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" at $124.1 million and ahead of "Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace" at $105.6 million (Associated Press)
  
  
• 'Passion' sets record at box office | Mel Gibson's film "The Passion of The Christ" has earned an estimated $117,538,465 since its spectacular $23.5 million opening on Wednesday, setting a record as the most successful debut ever for a film released in February, normally a slack season at movie theaters (The Washington Post)
  
  

Passion:

• Jesus Christ movie star | Mel Gibson's 'The Passion' defies expectations and opens to a flood of tears—and ticket sales. That may not stop it from being the most divisive movie in history (Newsweek)
  
  
• An act of 'Passion' | A local woman with psychological problems purposely drove her car into the water at A.W. Stanley Quarter Park in an attempt to re-enact a scene from the blockbuster film, "The Passion of The Christ," police said (New Britain Herald, Conn.)
  
  
• Spielberg dodges 'Passion' controversy | Says he's "too smart to answer a question like that" (The Hollywood Reporter)