Lionsgate has changed the release plan for The Resurrection Of The Christ, with the two parts of the Mel Gibson-directed biblical drama now set to appear more than a year apart.
Part one of film will now open on May 6, 2027, Ascension Day on the Christian calendar, and the second part on May 25, 2028, Ascension Day the following year and the start of the US Memorial Day holiday weekend.
The first part of the film had originally been set to arrive in cinemas on March 26, 2027 (Good Friday), with the second part opening 40 days later on May 6, 2027.
The March 26 release slot next year will now go to Day Drinker, Lionsgate’s thriller starring Johnny Depp, Madelyn Cline.
The company also announced that The Resurrection Of The Christ has completed principal photography ahead of schedule after shooting for 134 days in Rome, Bari and other Italian locations.
Produced by Gibson and Bruce Davey for their Icon Productions banner, the film is a follow-up to Gibson and Davey’s The Passion of the Christ, which grossed more than $600m in 2004, becoming one of the highest-grossing R rated films of all time.
Lionsgate will release Resurrection in North America and the UK, and in Latin America through its IDC joint venture. The company will team up on the film’s release with distribution partners including Leonine (Germany), Metropolitan Film (France) and Diamond (Spain). Icon will release in Australia/New Zealand.
Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chair Adam Fogelson said: “Mel is a true visionary with an artist’s eye for scale and a storyteller’s instinct for emotional truth. Every image we’ve seen from set feels like a masterwork painting brought to life. There are very few directors who can operate at this level of epic spectacle while at the same time delivering such depth and conviction. Mel has crafted a film of extraordinary ambition that audiences worldwide have been waiting to experience for over 20 years.”
Gibson added: “I’m deeply grateful to my incredibly talented cast and crew for pouring their hearts into this production. Together, we created something powerful. This film represents a major part of my life’s work, and it has demanded everything of me as a filmmaker and as an artist. This is far more than a film to me. It’s a mission I’ve carried for over twenty years to tell what I believe is the most important story in human history. Reuniting with many of my original collaborators from The Passion Of The Christ — true masters of their craft — allowed us to bring this story to the screen exactly as I envisioned it, with the tremendous support of my longtime partners, Adam and the team at Lionsgate.”
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