Ahead of Son of God's Feb. 28 opening, religious groups and churches have been buying up tickets for opening day.
Already at least 500,000 tickets have been purchased for upcoming showings of Son of God, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Some have gone so far as to buyout whole theaters or showings.
Liberty University will be renting out the nearby Regal theater, and it will be showing only screenings of the film for the first day. Many of the tickets will be given away by the university, with a spokesman saying that 100,000 had already been given away.
Liberty senior vp of communications Johnnie Moore said, "We think it's an extraordinary product and for Christianity we think it's an historic event."
Son of God is an attempt to cash in on the success of Mark Burnett and Roma Downey's The History Channel production of The Bible. The film features a bit of old and new footage.
The film's producers announced earlier this week that scenes featuring Satan were cut in an effort to head off any possible controversy over the facial similarities between the actor and President Obama.
Downey had noted that controversy first erupted back when Satan made his appearance in the series, which overshadowed Jesus' appearance in The Bible, so they decided it would be best leave all focus of the movie on the film's main character, Jesus.
image courtesy of EPK.TV