THE PARIS premiere of the
Batman film The Dark Knight Rises was cancelled on the 20th July after a dozen
people were murdered at a Denver cinema that was premiering the film.
A gunman wearing a gas mask
and a bulletproof vest hurled a gas canister inside the theater and opened fire
on moviegoers, killing 12 people and injuring scores more. He has been
identified as James Holmes, 24.
In New York, police planned
to deploy officers at screenings throughout the city as a precaution, and
theaters nationwide began reviewing and tightening security.
The ArcLight Cinemas in Los
Angeles increased security at all locations and said Dark Knight screenings
would continue as planned, according to a message from the theater on
Twitter.Carmike Cinemas, the nation’s fourth-largest theater chain, said it
uses uniformed “law enforcement officers and plainclothes agents” and other
security measures at its 237 theaters.
French Television station
TF1 said it had cancelled a pre-recorded interview with Marion Cotillard, who
stars in the film alongside Christian Bale and Anne Hathaway, that was to have
been broadcast.
Warner Bros. studio faced
the prospect of seeing the blockbuster at box offices after the tragic crime,
even as the film got off to a strong start across the United States and
Canada.Warner Bros, a unit of Time Warner Inc, said the film took in $30.6
million (RM93mil) at screenings just after midnight, surpassing the benchmark
set by The Avengers in midnight screenings.
The head of Cinemark
Holdings, owner of the Century 16 movie theater where the shooting occurred in
Aurora, Colorado, went on television to stress the safety of moviegoing.
Cinemark CEO Tim Warner called the shooting “a one-off tragedy.”
Hollywood box office
watchers said it was too soon to know exactly how ticket sales would be
impacted by the event as the industry has never faced a situation like this
one.“It’s too early to tell. This is a tragic and unprecedented event,” said
Paul Dergarabedian, box office watcher for Hollywood.com Box Office.
Phil Contrino, editor of
Boxoffice.com, echoed those sentiments, saying “nobody’s ever encountered this
before” and added that the first concerns should be for the people and families
who were affected by the shooting.
Contrino said the impact on
Hollywood and the industry could go beyond just The Dark Knight Rises to all
films in theaters if people stay away, and it could extend well into the future
if the event lingers in people’s minds.Others said the incident would do little
to dampen turnout for The Dark Knight Rises, the finale to a popular Batman
saga.
“As horrible as this was, it
is likely to affect ‘The Dark’ at the edges and won’t take away that many
viewers,” said Tony Wible, an analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott who follows
entertainment companies and theater chains. “There are only a few people who
won’t come out to see a movie because of this.”
The Dark Knight Rises stars
Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy and Michael Caine. Taking place eight
years after the events of the previous film, the finale finds Batman menaced by
the brutish Bane and the slinky Catwoman. (Reuters)
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