Dark Knight Rises Shooting: Will Fans Stay Away From Cinemas?

Many potential moviegoers in the U.S. have been put off going to their local cinemas, after last week's Colorado shootings. The incident occurred on Friday (July 20, 2012) during a midnight screening of Dark Knight Rises. Twelve people were killed and several others injured when James Holmes opened fire in the cinema in Aurora, Denver. According to a new report from the Los Angeles Times, 20 per cent of moviegoers said that they were reluctant to go to theatres this weekend. This has dropped from 25 per cent on Monday but is still likely to have a significant impact on the box office takings for Dark Knight Rises and, indeed, other films showing this weekend.

Dark Knight Rises, starring Christian Bale, still managed to impress industry insiders on its opening weekend, after taking an impressive $160.9 million, despite the tragedy that occurred. The movie is expected to take a further $65 million to $70 million. At the moment, the movie is on course to gross less than its predecessor, The Dark Knight, though it is hoped that global box office sales will buck this trend. So far, $125.3 million has been taken in international box office sales, from 17 overseas markets and is scheduled to open in another 40 locations this weekend.

In terms of the domestic box office charts, however, there's not much in the way of competition for Dark Knight Rises this weekend. 20th Century Fox are releasing 'The Watch,' starring Ben Stiller, Jonah Hill and Vince Vaughn. The movie was originally titled as 'Neighbourhood Watch' but filming coincided with the murder of Trayvon Martin and it was feared that cinema-goers would make a negative connection between the two.