The Da Vinci Code is a 2006 feature film based on the bestselling 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code, by author Dan Brown. It was one of the most anticipated films of 2006, and was previewed at the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2006. It then entered major release in many other countries on May 18, with its first showing in the United States on May 19.

Because of some controversial and controversial interpretations of Christian history, both the book and movie version of The Da Vinci Code have been the target of criticism by the Roman Catholic Church. Some bishops have even urged members to boycott the film. Many of the early showings were accompanied by protesters outside the movie theaters, and early critical reviews were decidedly mixed. However, in its opening weekend, the film earned over US$224 million worldwide, second only to the opening of 2005's Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

The film follows a professor of symbology, Robert Langdon, as he is called to the scene of a grisly murder in the Louvre. Along with young French cryptographer Sophie Neveu, Langdon tries to solve the message left by the victim in order to preserve a secret kept for two thousand years concerning Jesus and Mary Magdalene, which could revolutionize the Christian faith.

The film opens with a man (later revealed to be Jacques Saunière) being pursued by a mysterious hooded character carrying a handgun through one of the art wings in the Louvre. While trying to evade the man, he is confronted by him and reveals himself as Silas. Silas begins demanding the location of the Priory's clef de voûte or "keystone." However, Jacques instead tells him a lie that was told by the other three keepers of the secret as well, whom Silas all shot. Silas then shoots Jacques in the stomach, and walks out.

Saunière reveals a place (Church of Saint-Sulpice beneath the Rose), but we soon discover that this revelation was only a lie that was created by the Priory of Sion in case they were compromised.

Meanwhile, American religious iconologist, Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), who is in Paris as a guest lecturer on Symbols and the sacred feminine, is contacted by the French police, and summoned to the Louvre to view the crime scene. He discovers the dying Saunière had created an intricate display using black light ink and his own body and blood. Capitan Bezu Fache (Jean Reno) asks him for his interpretation of the puzzling scene.

Next on the scene is Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou), French Cryptologist. She discreetly informs Langdon that he is in danger, and must get away without arousing suspicions. Langdon, in confusion, excuses himself and heads to the men's washroom, where Sophie meets him and warns that he was bugged with a tracking device by Bezu Fache on the way into the Louvre. Sophie tells him to get rid of it by throwing it out the window beside her. After throwing out the chip onto the streets of Paris, French agents are alerted of Landon's attempted escape through the window and begin pursuing the automobile in which he supossedly in. Sophie begins explaining that Fache had erased a line of black light ink text which appeared to incriminate Langdon, and that Fache believes Langdon to be the murderer.

However, Sophie also believes that Saunière, who, it transpires, is her grandfather, wanted to pass a hidden message onto her, and that he had wanted to bring Langdon into the equation so that he could help her crack the code.

After the pair manage to buy some time by disorienting the French agents with throwing the chip out, they begin exploring the Louvre, finding some more anagramised messages that Saunière had left behind. Many of these messages relate to Leonardo Da Vinci's art, and the pair find a key with a Fleur-de-lis behind Madonna of the Rocks.

When the French agents stop the suspected car in which Langdon is supossedly in, they realise they were tricked and immediately head back to the Louvre. Upon arrival Robert and Sophie evade agents and are pursued by the French Police. Sophie tells Robert that she can continue with the investigation and that if they get to the American embassy then they can safely fly Langdon back to the United States.

After arriving at the front gates of the American embassy, the French authorities are already waiting for them both, Sophie then manages to drive into a narrow alleyway created by two moving trucks. Both of them abandon the car and head into a park where Langdon closely inspects the key. He notices an inscription on the side which is an address. The address appoints them to head over to the Depository Bank of Zurich where the key is used for a safety deposit box.

When they enter Depository Bank of Zurich, both now appear as wanted criminals on French television. One of the security guards recognises Langdon and Sophie and informs the police when both enter into a vault. They discover that Saunière had a safety deposit box, which requires a 10 digit code for them to access. Langdon then remembers Fibonacci numbers which was found previosly found on Jacques Saunière, when arranged in the correct order it becomes 1123581321.

When they succeed in entering the code, they acquire a box. The box turns out to contain a cryptex; a device which can be aligned in different ways, something like a Rubik's Cube, and must be set-up to spell out a 5-letter code word in order to open and access the parchment message inside which surrounds a vial of vinegar. Using force to open the cryptex would cause the vial to break and dissolve the parchment effectively destroying the message.

Differences between book and film:

Note: Some of these differences are based on the first edition of the book. Newer versions have been revised and in some cases are more similar to the movie.

In the movie, Langdon received the photograph of Sauniere's corpse after giving a symbology lecture in a university, while he is autographing his books. In the book, he is contacted after he returned to his hotel.
In the movie, Langdon holds far more moderate views towards the Catholics church, as opposed to his character in the book who agrees with Teabing on just about every point. He is also much more skeptical about the Priory of Sion in the movie.
The movie makes no verbal reference to the Divine Proportion, however, during a sequence in which Langdon cuts his face shaving, the pattern of the blood droplet in the sink vaguely resembles the shape of the Greek letter Phi. Also, the Bank of Zurich's emblem closely resembles a Phi.
Sophie found the hidden message in the Mona Lisa written at the bottom right of the painting. In the novel it is scrawled directly across Mona Lisa's face just like the one shown in the earlier trailers of the film.
In the movie, Langdon deciphered the code "So Dark The Con of Man" hidden in the Mona Lisa a few minutes after they found it; whereas in the book, Langdon could not deciper it and Sophie did instead.
Bank manager and one-time collaborator André Vernet turns against Langdon and Sophie because he has been waiting 20 years for somebody to return for the contents of the safe, and believes they may have killed a man to access his valuables. In the movie his selfish interests in the contents are insinuated, whereas in the book a fuller explanation is given of his dedication to protect Sauniere's interests as his client.
In the movie, Fache goes to the hospital to find Vernet and tells him to turn on the homing device, while in the book Vernet does so without telling Fache, so that his bank's reputation is not spoiled.
The answer to Teabing's second question at the gate changes. In the movie, the question to Langdon is whether he wants milk or lemon with his tea and he answers that it depends on the type of tea they are having. In the book, he is given the choice of milk or sugar, and hesitates before realizing that the correct answer is actually lemon (and that the tea should be Earl Grey, which in the film he was later offered within Teabing's residence and asked for lemon in response).
No mention is ever made in the movie of the surveillance equipment in the top of the barn at Teabing's manor, nor of the miniature knight in Sauniere's office in which a bug had been placed.
There is no second cryptex inside the first. The solution to the cryptex (and the mirrored writing found on the panel behind the rose logo on the box) is the same as the second one in the book.
The role of Opus Dei in the movie is significantly scaled back and far less ominous than their portrayal in the book. In the movie, Aringarosa is a sinister member of a secret council of priests, called the Council of Shadows, dedicated to the destruction of the Sangreal, instead of the desperate leader of Opus Dei dealing with an official council of the Vatican. This leaves Silas's role as more of the tormented executor rather that of the blindly faithful servant.
In the movie, Opus Dei is portrayed as an organization trying to destroy the Sangreal while in the book, Opus Dei is trying to gain control of the Sangreal in order to wield more influence in the church.
It is revealed that Bezu Fache is a member of Opus Dei in the movie; not mentioned in the book. He decides to pursue Robert Langdon as he was given a false tip by Bishop Aringarosa whom he trusted. In the book, Fache learns of Silas from Aringosa who tries to stop Silas from committing crimes as he realizes that he has been duped.
Langdon does not carefully hide the cryptex under furniture to prevent Teabing from discovering it prematurely the way he does in the book.
In the movie Teabing uses sophisticated computer animation to demonstrate codes in Da Vinci's paintings; whereas in the book he merely points at prints.
In the movie, due to Teabing's uses of sophisticated computer animation with Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, Teabing was able to digitally move Jesus' figure to his right over to Jesus' left making it seem as if the figure is resting on Jesus' shoulder. This code was never mentioned in the novel.
The name of Rémy Legaludec, Leigh Teabing's butler, is changed in the film to "Remy Jean".
Remy tells Silas that he is the Teacher in the limo, instead of one of his servants. Remy is poisoned by a pier in the Docklands of London instead of in the limo.
Silas is killed by police-assisted suicide to show his pain beside where he shot Aringarosa. In the book he flees the scene with mortal wounds and dies in a park.
In the novel, Robert and Sophie go to a library in London to discover the relevance of A. Pope. Whereas in the movie they borrow someone's mobile phone (which had a web browser) on a city bus, after they realize it will take too long to get to the library. Sophie uses feminine attractiveness to borrow the phone (which may introduce a technique not present in the book).
In the book, Sophie and Robert find a note at Newton's tomb telling them to go to a chapel in order to save Teabing, and it is at this chapel where they realize Teabing is "the Teacher." In the movie, Teabing reveals his true identity right at the tomb.
The revelation of the Teacher and the rest of the ending is presented differently. In the movie, Langdon and Sophie discovered the Sangreal documents – and thus the secrets of Sophie's ancestry – hidden beneath the Rosslyn Chapel. However, in the novel Langdon tells Sophie that she is not a descendant of Christ although she later discovers that she in fact is, and Langdon does not discover the location of the Sangreal documents on his own until the epilogue.
The entrance to the tomb beneath Rosslyn Chapel is easily found in the movie, beneath an obvious symbol of the unified chalice and blade. In the book, no such entrance to the underground chamber exists (the chamber had only been confirmed by sonograms, but Langdon and Sophie never see it) and the chalice/blade symbol is less obvious (the path of footprints worn into the floor). Also, the line accompanying this find insinuates that the Jewish Star of David was originally a pagan symbol.
In the book, only Sophie's parents were killed in a car accident of unknown origin. Sophie's brother (in the book) survives and is raised by their grandmother at Rosslyn Chapel. The grandparents agree to separate in order to protect the children. The book tells us that Sophie and her brother are reunited at the end – he is the man working at Rosslyn Chapel as a guide. In the movie, the man working at Rosslyn chapel as a guide is not presented as her brother – her brother is said to have died in the car accident.
In the book, one of the most important aspects of Sophie Neveu's relationship with her grandfather, Jacques Sauniere, is that she hadn't spoken to him in ten years. During those ten years, she never opened his many letters, nor did she ever tell another person about her reasons. After dropping the subject over and over, she finally explains that she accidentally witnessed a Hieros Gamos sex ritual involving her grandfather. In the movie, this traumatic event is hardly mentioned, and when the event is shown in flashback form, we only see a quick image of a naked man and woman having implied sex. The significance of this Priory of Sion pagan ritual is never explained by Langdon, as he does in the book.
In the book, Jacques Sauniere is Sophie's grandfather, and she is reunited with her grandmother, who lives behind the Rosslyn Chapel, and her brother, the docent, at the end, where it is revealed in the narrative that her grandmother and grandfather separated with great difficulty for the mere purpose of changing the family names and protecting the grandchildren in separate families. In the movie, Langdon tells Sophie that he believes that Jacques Sauniere is not her real grandfather. The docent is never announced as Sophie's brother. Instead, a legion of protectors of the holy grail meet Sophie with her grandmother, the rest being left unexplained.
In the book, Robert and Sophie kiss in the end. In the movie, Sophie "cures" Robert's phobia, and there are other very sublime touching moments between them, barely implying that some relationship could continue, but without ever implying romance. They are shown making their farewells at the end.
In the movie, Langdon counsels Sophie that it may not necessarily be important or right to prove the bloodline; that it will have to be largely her choice, and that it could be a matter of faith and of deciding which set of beliefs to "promote" (or at least not shake up, yet); asking if the proof really matters, anyway. In the book, an explanation is given earlier that the "two" versions of history are merely different, not necessarily making one totally correct over the other, an explanation missing from the movie. Like Pilate asked "What is Truth?"
In the movie, Sophie tries to walk on water, and jokes about making water into wine, presumably due to having Jesus' and Mary's miracle-making genes or "blood." In the book, there is no such reference.
In the book, Leigh shows quotes of Leonardo da Vinci and many books including Holy Blood, Holy Grail.
In the book Silas has red eyes and Sophie has green eyes while in the movie they have bright blue and brown eyes respectively.
In the book, Teabing puts peanut dust into Remy's cognac in order to poison him, since Remy has an allergy to peanuts. In the film, the method of poisoning is unspecified and Remy's allergy is not mentioned; therefore the circumstances of his death are still under heated debate among fans.
In the movie, the members of the Priory of Sion are revealed, but in the book, there is no such reference.
In the book, Langdon is a firm believer in Grail lore, having become a believer while researching his book "Symbols of the Lost Sacred Feminine". However, in the film he dismisses most of it as myth (Although in the film his book is already published) and even argues with Teabing about it several times.
In the book, the fact that Sophie was a cryptologist was used to solve puzzles, whereas in the movie, it was only mentioned once at the Louvre. Langdon later reinforced her lack of cryptological skills by stating that she "can't solve it!"
At the end of the movie, a stubborn Aringarosa is placed under arrest by Fache as he is carried into an ambulance. In the book, the more repentant Aringarosa arranges to have the bearer bonds he acquired divided among the families of Silas's victims as he lays recovering on a hospital bed.
In the book, when Teabing and the rest are escaping from France, they call the pilot and say they need to go directly to London. In the movie, he says he is going to Zurich, and only mid-air, when they find a secret message in the Cryptex box, do they decide to turn the plane toward London.
In the book, Teabing claims that over 3 million women were burned at the stake during the witch trials. In the movie, it is Langdon who first posits the figure of 50,000 people, and Teabing who goes on to add that "some people say much more, possibly millions."
In the book, Teabing's claim that Emperor Constantine invented Christ's divinity is met by Langdon with a "soft nod of concurrence." In the movie, Langdon passionately challenges this claim of Teabing's as nonsense.
Whereas the book states unequivocally that it was the Christians who waged war on the pagans in an attempt to suppress them, in the movie this claim of Teabing's is met by an assertion from Langdon that we don't know whether it was the Christians or the Pagans who initiated the violence.
In the book, Sophie reads from the Gospel of Philip that Jesus loved Mary Magdalene more than the other disciples and kissed her often on the mouth. The film Teabing reads the passage out loud, but is cut off by Robert just after the words "often on the . . ."! The "Gospel of Philip" is purported to be in Aramaic, however the movie does not mention the term Aramaic for it was originally a coptic text.
In the novel Sophie has red hair, reinforcing her connection to Mary Magdalene, but the actress in the film (Audrey Tautou) is a brunette.
In the movie, Teabing reads the word "companion" from the "Gospel of Philip", then Langdon tells Sophie that in those times, "companion" literally meant "marriage". The book says nothing about the word companion.

Taglines:
Seek The Truth
Seek the truth, seek the codes.
So Dark The Con of Man.

The film rights were purchased from Dan Brown for $6,000,000. Filming had been scheduled to start in May 2005; however, some delays caused filming to begin on June 30, 2005.

Permission to film on the premises was granted to the film by the Louvre (although, since the crew was not permitted to shine light on the Mona Lisa, a replica was used instead, whilst the film crew used the Mona Lisa's chamber as a storage room), while Westminster Abbey denied the use of its premises, as did Saint-Sulpice. The Westminster Abbey scenes were instead filmed at Lincoln Cathedral and Winchester Cathedral, both belonging to the Church of England.

Lincoln reportedly received £100,000 in exchange for the right to film there, with filming there occuring between 15 and 19 August 2005, mainly within the cloisters of the cathedral. The Cathedral's bell "Great Tom" which strikes the hour was silent for the first time since World War II during that time. Although it remained a closed set, protestors led by the 61-year-old Roman Catholic nun Sister Mary Michael from Our Lady's Community of Peace and Mercy in Lincoln demonstrated against the filming, spending 12 hours praying on her knees outside the cathedral in protest against what she sees as the blasphemous use of a holy place to film a book which she considers to contain heresy.

Meanwhile Winchester answered criticism by using its location fee to fund an exhibition, lecture series and campaign to debunk the book

Filming also took place in France, London (including the Temple Church), and Germany.

The filmmakers also shot many of the internal scenes at Pinewood Studios. The film's opening sequence was filmed in the cavernous "Albert R. Broccoli's 007 Stage" at Pinewood where the interior of the Louvre was recreated, away from the priceless paintings in the actual museum in France.

In the film's opening sequence, Robert Langdon, played by Tom Hanks, is taken by French police to the Louvre, where a dead body has been discovered. David White of Altered States FX, a prosthetics and special makeup effects company which is based at London's Shepperton Studios was tasked with creating a naked photo-realistic silicone body for the scene. (Lighting effects, however, were utilized to obscure the body's genitalia (an effect also used on television programmes such as CSI).

Pinewood's state-of-the-art Underwater Stage was used to film underwater sequences. The stage opened in 2005 after four years of planning and development. The water in the tank is filtrated using an ultra violet system which creates crystal clear water and a comfortable environment to work in for both cast and crew. The tank is permanently filled and the water is maintained at 22 ËšC (72 ËšF).

The Vatican:
At a conference on April 28, 2006, the secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a Vatican curial department formerly known as the Inquisition, Archbishop Angelo Amato, specifically called for a boycott of the film version of The Da Vinci Code; he said the movie is "full of calumnies, offences, and historical and theological errors."

Cardinal Francis Arinze, in a documentary called "The Da Vinci Code: A Masterful Deception," urged unspecified legal action against the makers of the film. "Those who blaspheme Christ and get away with it are exploiting the Christian readiness to forgive and to love even those who insult us. There are some other religions which if you insult their founder they will not be just talking. They will make it painfully clear to you," Arinze said. He is Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in the Vatican.

Opus Dei:
Stating that it does not intend to organize any boycotts, Opus Dei (the Catholic organization that is featured prominently in the novel and the film) released a statement on February 14, 2006 asking Sony Pictures to consider editing the soon-to-be-released film based on the bestseller, so that it would not contain references that it felt might be hurtful to Catholics. The statement also said Brown’s book offers a "deformed" image of the church and that Opus Dei will use the opportunity of the movie’s release to educate about the church.

On Easter, April 16, 2006, Opus Dei published an open letter by the Japanese Information Office of Opus Dei mildly proposing that Sony Pictures consider including a disclaimer on the film adaptation as a "sign of respect towards the figure of Jesus Christ, the history of the Church, and the religious beliefs of viewers." The organization also encouraged the studio to clearly label the movie as fictitious "and that any resemblance to reality is pure coincidence."

According to a statement by Manuel Sánchez Hurtado, Opus Dei Press Office Rome, in contrast to Sony Corporation’s published "Code of Conduct" the company has announced that the film will not include such a disclaimer.

American Catholic bishops:
US Catholic bishops launched a website refuting the key claims in the novel that are about to be brought to the screen. The bishops are concerned about errors and serious misstatements in The Da Vinci Code. The film has also been rated morally offensive – by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office for Film and Broadcasting, which denounced its depiction of both the Jesus-Mary Magdalene relationship and that of Opus Dei as "deeply abhorrent."

Peru:
The Peruvian Episcopal Conference (CEP) appointed the movie—and the book—as part of a "systematic attack on the Catholic Church". Furthermore, the Archbishop of Lima, a Cardinal and member of Opus Dei, Juan Luis Cipriani urged his community not to see the film: "If someone goes (to see the movie), they are giving money to those who hurt the faith. It's not a problem of fiction; if truth is not respected, what arises we could call white glove terrorism."

NOAH:
The National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation (NOAH) has expressed concern about Silas' character giving albinos a bad name. However, the filmmakers did not change his appearance. See also evil albino.

China:
Although the Da Vinci code was passed by Chinese censors, and began screening, it was abruptly removed from public view, by order of the Chinese government. Its last screening was made on the 9th of June 2006.

Media outlets were also issued with an order preventing them from promoting, discussing or commenting on the film.

All copies were of the film were order to be confiscated from cinemas in Beijing and Shanghai.

No explanation was given.

Faroe Islands:
The biggest cinema in the Faroe Islands, Havnar Bio, decided to boycott the film, effectively blocking it from the other smaller cinemas, who rely on second-hand films from this source, because it seems to be blasphemous in their point of view. Havnar Bio is privately owned, and their decision is based on their own private opinion.

A private initiative by the individual Herluf Sørensen has arranged the movie to be played in the Faroe Islands, despite the boycotts. The movie is scheduled to run at the Nordic House on the 5th June 2006.

Thailand:
Christian groups in this mostly Buddhist country protested the film and called for it to be banned. On May 16, 2006, the Thai Censorship Committee issued a ruling that the film would be shown, but that the last 10 minutes would be cut. Also, some Thai subtitles were to be edited to change their meaning and passages from the Bible would also be quoted at the beginning and end of the film.

However, the following day, Sony Pictures appealed the ruling, saying it would pull the film if the decision to cut it was not reversed. The censorship panel then voted 6-5 that the film could be shown uncut, but that a disclaimer would precede and follow the film, saying it was a work of fiction.

Singapore:
The National Council of Churches of Singapore (NCCS) wrote to Information, Communications and the Arts Minister to register their "strongest objection" to the release of the film and requested that it be banned. The Media Development Authority, however, passed the unedited version of the movie, albeit with a NC16 rating, a restriction for children below the age of 16.

Samoa:
The film was banned outright in Samoa after church leaders watching a pre-release showing filed a complaint to film censors.

India:
There was a huge outcry in many states by the Christian minorities to ban the film from screening in India for the perceived anti-Christian message. This issue has even brought the minister responsible to view the film along with the senior Catholic representatives.

In the end, the movie was allowed to release without any cuts but with an A (Adults Only) certification from the Central Board for Film Certification and a 15-second Disclaimer added at the end stating that the movie was purely a tale of fiction. However the movie was delayed by a week by which time the grey market was flooded with pirated copies of the movie.

The screening of the film Da Vinci Code has been banned in Punjab, Goa, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.The Indian censor board however had cleared the movie for release on Friday,2 June.

Middle East:
The film is banned in Lebanon

Pakistan:
Pakistan on June 3rd, 2006 banned cinemas from showing "The Da Vinci Code" because it contained what officials called blasphemous material about Jesus. The authorities decided to ban it out of respect for the feelings of the country's Christians, which make up about 3 percent of Pakistan's 150 million people.

As of May 24, 2006, the film has a rating of 23% on the Rotten Tomatoes website, representing 44 positive reviews out of the 193 total reviews currently available. Consensus judgment by the Rotten Tomatoes critics: "What makes Dan Brown’s novel a best seller is evidently not present in this dull and bloated movie adaptation of The Da Vinci Code."

Leading actor Tom Hanks has publicly denounced those who wish to boycott the film based on its biblical and historical inaccuracies. While admitting to the Evening Standard that those involved with the movie "always knew there would be a segment of society that would not want this movie to be shown," he adds that the film's story "is loaded with all sorts of hooey and fun kind of scavenger-hunt-type nonsense." Hanks went on to diminish the critical value of The Da Vinci Code bashers by saying that if they "are going to take any sort of movie at face value, particularly a huge-budget motion picture like this, (they'd) be making a very big mistake." While not downplaying the movie itself, Hanks stated that "all it is, is dialogue," adding that dialogue "never hurts." He also stated at the Cannes Film Festival that he and his wife saw no contradiction between their faith and the film, as "My heritage, and that of my wife, suggests that our sins have been taken away, not our brains."

Also at Cannes, Sir Ian McKellen was quoted as saying - "While I was reading the book I believed it entirely. Clever Dan Brown twisted my mind convincingly. But when I put it down I thought, 'What a load of ... [eloquent pause] potential codswallop." During a May 17, 2006 interview on The Today Show with the Da Vinci Code cast and director, Matt Lauer posed a question to the group about how they would have felt if the film had borne a prominent disclaimer that it is a work of fiction, as some religious groups wanted. (Some high ranking Vatican cabinet members had called for a boycott of the film.) McKellen responded, "I've often thought the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying 'This is fiction.' I mean, walking on water? It takes. . . an act of faith. And I have faith in this movie—not that it's true, not that it's factual, but that it's a jolly good story." He continued, "And I think audiences are clever enough and bright enough to separate out fact and fiction, and discuss the thing when they've seen it."

The film's teaser trailer was released in the summer of 2005, a full year before the film's worldwide release. It was released before a single frame of the movie had been shot. It features crevices with some hidden symbols and was later revealed as an image of Da Vinci's most famous painting, the Mona Lisa.

The court case brought against Dan Brown by Richard Leigh and Michael Baigent, the authors of the non-fiction book Holy Blood, Holy Grail has added to the film's publicity.

A cross-promotion also appeared on The Amazing Race 9, where one team earned a trip to the movie's premiere in Hollywood, California. The prize was awarded to the first team to arrive at the Pit Stop bearing two parchments and demonstrating that, when combined, they revealed a picture of Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man and a coded message; the first team to arrive at the Pit Stop did show the message and were awarded the prize.

To limit exposure in the age of blogs and constant leaks, both Sony and Imagine Entertainment, decided to forgo test screenings, a form of market research usually considered critical to fine-tuning a picture. According to the studio representative, the strategy is to preserve a climate of mystery and excitement around the movie, despite the fact that anyone who is interested probably already knows the plot through having already read the book. Even theater owners saw the 2 1/2 hour film only 5 days before the film festival, which by exhibition standards is as last minute as it gets.

As part of the lead up to the movie, various encrypted clues are being placed in movie trailers and interviews. In mid-April, two such clues appeared in the Da Vinci Code interviews on Entertainment Tonight and The Insider, as highlighted letters in the names of interviewees.

In February, Sony, in cooperation with Grace Hill Media, launched The Da Vinci Dialogue (aka The Da Vinci Challenge), a fairly comprehensive web site which is intended to defuse Christian opposition to the movie. The site mixes some mild criticisms with movie promotional material.

Information and solutions / discussion on both the original webquests and the more recent Google-sponsored webquests can be found at the The Da Vinci Code WebQuests article on Wikipedia.

There have been protesters at several movie theaters across the United States on opening weekend protesting the themes of the film, citing it as blasphemy and claiming that it shames both the Catholic Church, and Jesus Christ himself. More than 200 protesters also turned out in Athens, Greece to protest the film's release shortly before opening day. In Manila the movie was banned from all theathers and the set by the local MTRCB as an R18 movie for the Philippines. In Pittsburgh, protesters also showed up at a special screening of the film the day before its widespread release. Protests also occurred at the filming sites, but only a monk and a nun stood in a quiet protest at the Cannes premiere.

Critical response to the film is mixed.

On the one hand, the film was not well received at the Cannes Film Festival. In addition, some film critics such as Michael Medved gave the film two stars (out of four) saying, ". . .all the considerable acting talent in the film is wasted . . ." and "the plot twists and sudden reverses . . . seem silly, arbitrary, and entirely contrived – never growing organically out of the story-line or the thinly sketched characters."

On the other hand, other critics liked the film. Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and stated, "the movie works; it's involving, intriguing and constantly seems on the edge of startling revelations." Lawrence Toppman of The Charlotte Observer, who also liked the film, gave it three and a half (out of four stars) and noted, "unlike most Hollywood blockbusters, this one assumes audience members will be smart."

Despite the protests, the film still opened with an estimated $29 million in box office sales on its opening day, averaging $7764 per screen. During its opening weekend, moviegoers spent an estimated $77 million in America, and $224 million worldwide, according to Sony Pictures. The Da Vinci Code is the best domestic opening for both Tom Hanks and Ron Howard.

It also enjoyed the biggest opening weekend for the year to date, and the second biggest worldwide opening weekend ever, just behind 2005's Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. This has led some critics, particularly in the UK, to moot the idea of the 'critic-proof film'.

Ranking and current gross:
The movie was easily the #1 movie domestically at the box office during the week of May 19-25, 2006, grossing $102.5 million during that span.
According to Boxofficemojo.com, as of June 4, 2006, The Da Vinci Code has grossed an estimated $172 million domestically (3rd highest of 2006) and an estimated $580.8 million worldwide (2nd highest of 2006) since its release on May 19, 2006.
In the Netherlands, the film was released on May 18 in 127 cinemas. The film debuted at #1 grossing over € 2,249,322 in its first week, the highest debut in 2006. In its second week, it topped the Boxoffice Top 10 again, grossing over €1,996,735 in that week. As of May 31, the film has grossed a total of € 4,246,057.