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On tragedy

Kim Hollis: Now that you've had several days to ruminate, what are your thoughts about the impact of the Aurora, Colorado tragedy on The Dark Knight Rises? Do you believe it has significantly impacted overall perception of the film? Has it impacted you? If it has, does this impact exist beyond The Dark Knight rises to include any type of movie attendance right now?

Bruce Hall: I'm sure I am in the minority here, but I have trouble identifying the shooting so closely with the film itself. It's normal for people to want to place blame in easy places so right now we're hearing a lot about the Batman Shootings, or about violent movies or gun control laws. But at the end of the day a deranged individual made a choice to find a crowded place and exorcise his demons in a tragic way. This could have happened in a lot of places. Still, I don't know that there's an accurate way to gauge the impact of this on the film's attendance, but for some the association will always be there so I'm sure it exists. But when it comes to the blame game, I'd prefer to keep the focus on how an obviously sick man might have found help before it was too late. Things like this don't have to happen, and I think putting the blame in the right place is a great way to start.

Jason Barney: I agree with Bruce. This nut acted out in a horrible way. It is sad that his violence is taking down what should have been a historic performer at the box office.

That said, it is just really hard to reconcile what has happened. As I discussed in the first post, the last film had numbers so high partly because of the death of the Heath Ledger. We can't forget that. Can anyone honestly claim that the performance of that film had nothing to do with his death? Also, people have to remember that there were conversations about his performance as the Joker and his death. His delivery was almost too good. Even if people don't connect the dots like that, the sad fact is this wing nut (and apparently a couple of others around the country) have become so obsessed with the craziness of a fictional character they cannot control themselves. Do I believe the film is at fault? Of course not. The movie industry? No. However, I sense that movie goers are just a little uncomfortable about the whole situation, even though Chris Nolan has produced art.

I suspect the film will recover in coming weekends. Will it match expectations? No. After the shootings, I just don't see how it can.

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