A resolution was signed by a majority of the city councillors just hours after it premiered in Asia's bastion of Catholicism.

The resolution said the movie, which was based on US author Dan Brown's explosive novel, is "offensive to the established beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church."

It stressed that the country's Revised Penal Code states that "it is a crime to exhibit films which offend a religion."

City councillor Benjamin Asilo, who authored the resolution, said malls and cinema owners who defy the ban risked being fined, or their owners imprisoned.

Those caught selling pirated DVDs or VCDs of the movie could also be jailed for up to six months, Asilo warned.

The movie takes a leaf from Brown's book which put forward the theory that Jesus Christ was married to the biblical prostitute Mary Magdalene, had children and that the sacred blood line still exists today in secret.