Of all the movies that are currently out in theaters, which one gets the most searches online?
Is it the thriller Don't Say a Word, #1 at the box office? How about the Ben Stiller comedy Zoolander? Maybe it is the Keanu Reeves baseball drama Hardball. Or maybe it is one of the movies which came out this past weekend, like Denzel Washington in Training Day.
Actually, it is none of those films. Instead, the most popular current film online is a little-known apocalyptic thriller aimed at religious Christians. It is called Megiddo.
Megiddo is the second movie in a trilogy of action films playing out the story of the book of Revelation for Christian movie audiences. According to the New Testament, Megiddo is the mountain in Israel where the final fight between good and evil will take place. The world armageddon is actually the Hebrew Har Megiddo, or Mount Megiddo.
Megiddo last weekend was the #13 film at the box office, making barely a million dollars. The again, it was playing on only 353 screens, compared to 2800 for Don't Say a Word and 2200 for Hardball. That means the film took in about $2900 a screen, which puts it fourth for the week.
And how popular was it among Lycos users? Last week Megiddo garnered 28 percent more searches than Zoolander, and 70 percent more searches than Hardball.
You probably have never heard of Megiddo. That's because the film is promoted at churches and in the Christian media, not the mainstream media. It is also opening in just a few theaters at a time, gradually state by state in order to build the underground hype.
The first film in the trilogy, 1999's The Omega Code, earned over $12 million despite never playing in more than 450 theaters at a time. When the film debuted in the top ten, it was a shock to movie industry insiders who had never heard of it.
Megiddo's plot follows the Antichrist-to-be, Stone Alexander, a rich businessman who becomes head of the European Union and uses it as the first step towards a one-world government. The only thing standing in his way is his brother, who is President of the United States. Don't ask me how the head of the European Union and the President of the United States could be brothers, but they are.
The film has some moderately known actors in it. Stone Alexander is played by Michael York, who you might remember as Basil Exposition from the Austin Powers films. Let's see, penis enlarger jokes in one film, apocalyptic fundamentalist Christianity in the next? that makes sense.
I kid a bit, but Megiddo's popularity is an important step for the growing industry of more expensive, mainstream Christian entertainment. A number of Christian books sell more copies each week than the books which top the New York Times bestseller lists -- they don't show up because the Times does not include religious bookstores in its counting. At the same time, Christian musical acts like Sixpence None the Richer and P.O.D. have crossed over to the mainstream. Don't be surprised that this mainstream crossover includes more attention on the Internet.
TOMORROW: The new Lycos 50.
