Le Batman's dark night in Paris

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.

Source: Reuters