The Passion of the Christ returns to US theaters for one week from Thursday 10 September, remastered in 4K from the original camera negative with a new Dolby Atmos mix. Lionsgate and Fathom Entertainment are handling the run, and the film's original cinematographer, Caleb Deschanel, supervised a new color pass.
Mel Gibson's 2004 film covers the final twelve hours of Jesus of Nazareth's life, drawing on the four Gospels alongside the devotional visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich. Jim Caviezel plays Jesus, with Maia Morgenstern as Mary, in a production shot almost entirely in Aramaic, Hebrew and Latin with subtitles.
The re-release lands ahead of Gibson's long-planned sequel, The Resurrection of the Christ: Part One, due in theaters in May 2027, and every screening includes a first look at footage from it. The title role has been recast: Finnish actor Jaakko Ohtonen takes over from Caviezel for the two-part follow-up, a significant handoff for a character this closely tied to one performance.
Critical reaction in 2004 was split, and the film's 47 on Metacritic still reflects real discomfort with its unrelenting violence and its handling of religious history. Audiences saw it differently: it became the highest-grossing R-rated film in the US and held that record for twenty years.
That is the case for going back now. The film is not easier to sit through in 4K, and it should not be, but seeing it with upgraded picture and sound, with the sequel's footage attached, is the closest anyone will get to the event it was in 2004.
