Tom Hanks: $100 million man

The Da Vinci Code isn't the only thing Tom Hanks is cracking this month. He also cracked the Guinness Book of World Records.

The two-time Oscar winner's way with moviegoers has earned him the title of Actor with Most Consecutive $100 Million-Grossing Movies, with seven consecutive big box-office films, the record-tracking folks announced Wednesday.

America's favorite movie star started his lucrative streak with Saving Private Ryan ($216.5 million) in 1998 and capped it with 2002's Catch Me If You Can ($164.6 million).

Hanks, 49, has appeared in 14 movies overall that have grossed $100 million or more domestically, and he would have had 11 six-figure hits in a row if his directorial debut, That Thing You Do, had done its thing four times as well in 1996. The film, in which Hanks had a supporting role, netted only $25.8 million.

He's come a long way from Bosom Buddies. Hanks also shares a world record with Spencer Tracy, Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Marlon Brando and a few other legends for "Most Oscars Won, Best Actor." Each one of those household names has two, with Hanks' statuettes coming for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. Tracy and Hanks were the only two to get their honors in consecutive years.

Although The Ladykillers ($39.8 million) and The Terminal ($77.9 million) terminated his streak, The Polar Express and its $162.8 million showing laid the foundation for a new record. Hanks' next effort is almost sure to prolong his box-office prowess, although $100 million might be aiming a little low.

The Da Vinci Code opens May 19 in wide release (after its May 17 premiere at the Cannes Film Festival) and the megabuzz surrounding the Ron Howard-directed project practically guarantees it will be one of the biggest films of the year.

For starters, more than 40 million people read the Dan Brown novel the film is based on, and 1 million copies of the paperback version were snatched up its first month out. But a little controversy never hurt moviegoers' curiosity, either (except in the case of Tom Cruise, perhaps?) and clashes with the Catholic Church, a few legal snafus for Brown and talk of possible boycotts have probably only upped the hype meter.

Oh, and people just love Tom Hanks.

Currently, according to online sports book BetCRIS, the odds of The Da Vinci Code having a $105.1 million or better opening weekend (Friday to Sunday) are 2 to 1. More than $120.1 million--4 to 1.

If you like to live dangerously, you could go for the 25 to 1 odds that the film will make $35 million or less, but we wouldn't recommend it.

Of course, not everyone is going to watch Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Jean Reno and Ian McKellen tearing up the streets of Paris, London and Scotland to solve the fictional mystery to end all fictional mysteries.

Senior Vatican officials have called for a boycott of the film, and the Council of Churches in Jordan and Roman Catholic activists in India want their governments to ban the film completely. The Greek Orthodox Church and a top aide to the president of the Philippines reportedly are none too happy, either.

Those in the United States who are concerned about the film's take on the Bible and the Catholic Church seem to be bypassing boycotts in favor of "educational outreach"--books denouncing The Da Vinci Code's theories and lectures about the Gospels. Concerned Women for America, for one, has issued a pamphlet titled "The Top 10 Da Vinci Code Distortions."

Opus Dei, the group that went so far as to demand that Howard and Sony Pictures Entertainment place a disclaimer at the start of the film denoting it as fiction, has also nixed the idea of a boycott. Howard, meanwhile, refused to add the message to his finished product.

A leader from the Catholic sect cited the controversy over Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ as a reason to not protest too loudly. What started out as a film with what appeared to be little mainstream appeal turned into a $370 million phenomenon.

But while anti-Da Vinci Coders are getting all the press these days, the millions of people intending to see the movie are flying quietly under the radar.

"The Da Vinci Code has become so popular that you can go anywhere in the world and odds are you'll run into someone who has read it once, if not twice," BetCRIS CEO Mickey Richardson said in a statement. "The novel took the world by storm, and I would say the probability of the movie doing the same is pretty high."