Equinoxe Films continues to roll.

Two years ago, the Montreal-based distributor scored Canadian rights to My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which went on to reap $30.5 million at the domestic box office. Last year saw Equinoxe’s release of Mambo Italiano, which made $5.3 million at the till, making it the most successful English-language Canuck production since Porky’s. And the streak continues in 2004 with The Passion of the Christ, which so far has pulled in $23 million at Canadian theaters.

Director Mel Gibson’s hot-potato-turned-cultural-phenom, spoken in Aramaic, Latin and Hebrew, was passed over by the major Hollywood studios. It was upon reading this in his weekend newspaper that Michael Mosca, Equinoxe’s senior VP and COO, was inspired to action.

‘On the Monday, I ran into the office and spoke to Yves [Dion, Equinoxe’s VP distribution] and told him to see what he could do,’ Mosca recalls.

Boutique New York distrib Newmarket Films ultimately signed on to service the film’s U.S. release. Equinoxe got on the phone with Newmarket prez Bob Berney to see if Newmarket’s deal included Canada, which it didn’t. Berney put Equinoxe in touch with Gibson’s Icon Entertainment, which produced Passion and which, coincidentally, had bought Mambo rights from Equinoxe for the U.K., Australia and New Zealand.

Mosca, Dion and Marc Beausejour, Equinoxe’s director of video, Canada, stopped over in London on their way to the MIFED film market in Milan for a screening of the film with other international distributors.

‘We had just landed in London about 11 a.m., flying overnight, and at 2 p.m. we had the screening of the subtitled film, so I was hoping I would stay awake,’ Mosca recalls. ‘But I had to be there. The opportunities for an independent distributor to pick up something from an Oscar-winning director are rare to none.’

Finally having seen the film, which documents the final hours of Jesus Christ (played by James Caviezel) in graphic detail, Mosca says he and his colleagues were speechless and ‘absolutely blown away.’ When their emotions settled, they agreed that they wanted the film, and initiated talks with Icon brass.

As to how Equinoxe scooped the film from underneath its bigger competitors, rumors have a major local player shying away from the project out of respect for the U.S. studios with which it has an ongoing relationship. The American majors steered clear of the film in the wake of early accusations that it could inspire anti-Semitism through its portrayal of Christ’s killers as Jews.

But Icon was not going to simply hand its baby over to the first bidder. Equinoxe had to win them over with a marketing plan, one that underlined the company’s success with Greek Wedding, the most successful indie film ever at the Canadian box office. And the release of the film that it displaced for that title, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, was supervised by Dion when he was at now-defunct Blackwatch Releasing. Like Passion, Tiger is subtitled, usually making for a hard sell.

Equinoxe envisioned a platform release, more than happy to follow Newmarket’s lead. Icon also had to be assured that Equinoxe was on firm financial ground, as Equinoxe would be covering the $2 million-plus in P&A. (That expenditure is not huge, but the film also benefited from the marketing that crossed over the border.) With all that settled, there remained little haggling.

‘We didn’t really negotiate,’ Mosca says. ‘Icon basically dictated the terms, and we either said ‘yes’ or ‘no’… The percentages were a little bit lower than what we’re used to in a normal contract.’

Equinoxe has theatrical, home video and TV rights, and anticipates ‘huge numbers’ from these latter two streams as well.

In their decision to shun Gibson’s movie, the U.S. majors forgot the adage that ‘any publicity is good publicity.’ The controversy that surrounded the production continued to escalate, getting the film ample coverage on popular media outlets such as Entertainment Tonight and landing the publicity-shy Gibson in an interview with Diane Sawyer on ABCNEWS’ Primetime.

All this attention emboldened Icon and Newmarket to open the film on 3,043 screens in the U.S. – blockbuster numbers for a US$25-million indie flick. It opened on Feb. 25, Ash Wednesday, on 226 Canadian screens, rising to 270 that Friday. Over the next few weeks it would hit a peak of 285 screens.

Which is not to say that Mosca didn’t have some reservations about the film’s commercial prospects.

‘The U.S. has the [Bible] Belt – we weren’t quite sure in Canada,’ he explains. ‘I knew it had to do anywhere between three and five million, to be conservative… Being a Mel Gibson film, it had to do at least that, and we were going to at least break even doing those kinds of figures.’

Equinoxe was able to spread the gospel on the film with a promotional boost from Christian ministry Campus Crusade for Christ, which still has info related to the film on its website, and grassroots screenings for church and college groups that launched in 10 cities in January. Mosca says the screenings, booked by Famous Players and Cineplex, were held in part to deflate the anti-Semitism fears, which had sprung up sight unseen.

The film has proved most popular in English Canada. While Quebec usually accounts for 25% to 30% of Canadian box office, according to Mosca, the take in la belle province currently stands at only $2.7 million, despite the province’s large Catholic population. Ontario has accounted for nearly 50% of receipts, and B.C. 12%.

Mosca expects Passion’s ticket sales will take it to $25 million, still less than Greek Wedding. At press time, the film was still playing on 170 Canadian screens. Unlike in the U.S., where Passion was still the top box-office draw as of April 11, Equinoxe was unable to increase its number of screens for the Easter weekend.

‘We tried to push as much as we could, and I don’t understand the circuits, because being in its seventh or eighth week, all the money that Passion would have made – they would have had a lot more return at the theater level,’ Mosca says.

He believes that exhibitors feel pressured to accommodate the product of the major U.S. distribs, especially with summer blockbuster season fast upon us. In Canada, Passion has been surpassed on the charts by Sony Pictures’ Hellboy and Fox’s The Girl Next Door.

Despite a strong third consecutive year, Mosca acknowledges that Equinoxe by no means has the Midas touch. For one, he can’t be too optimistic about the company’s forthcoming Quebec release of the US$95-million Buena Vista western epic The Alamo, which had a highly disappointing opening weekend in the U.S. and English Canada at US$9 million.

‘We’re going to have our share of failures, for sure,’ Mosca concedes. ‘Right now we seem to be riding a nice little wave, and we’ll carry it as long as we can.’

-www.equinoxefilms.com