Church handled 'Da Vinci' well, says Michigan marketing professor

Published: 2006-06-13

DETROIT (CNS) -- There were no excommunications or top-down, churchwide boycotts to oppose "The Da Vinci Code," the movie many Christians believe distorts the legacy of Jesus Christ. With a ready-made audience owing to huge sales of the novel of the same name, not to mention copious advance publicity, the movie had a strong box-office opening around the globe. But according to University of Detroit Mercy marketing professor Michael Bernacchi, such a tempered response from the Catholic Church was exactly what the situation called for. "The church as a formal, institutional body could not have handled it any better," Bernacchi said after the movie's first week in theaters. "I think they're at the top of their game." The movie -- which was classified as "morally offensive" by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office for Film & Broadcasting -- made more than $77 million in its first weekend, according to the movie industry Web site BoxOfficeMojo.com.

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