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Swine flu could poison X-Men Origins: Wolverine box office
A superhero could well be among the casualties of the deadly outbreak of swine influenza in Mexico City, Variety reported. 20th Century Fox's X-Men Origins: Wolverine is due to open Thursday in a city that has become the epicenter of the potential flu pandemic—but the majority of the capital's theaters are likely to be closed.
Scores of screens owned by exhibitors Cinepolis, Cinemex, Cinemas Lumiere and Cinemark have gone dark, and the remaining chains and indies are expected to follow suit. Cinepolis is also shutting theaters in the states of Mexico and San Luis Potosi.
Cinemark and Cinemas Lumiere sites are closed until further notice, while others hope to re-open later this week depending on the situation.
The theaters are responding to a request from Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, who has also asked that other public places, such as bars and restaurants, close shop in an attempt to contain the outbreak, which had claimed 150 lives by Monday. Schools and public transport have already shuttered.
This wait-and-see attitude has gripped the capital of some 20 million people, where the traffic on the normally congested streets has been cut by half, public places are no longer crowded and many of those who venture out are wearing face masks.
By Dingbat at 11:51 PM ON 04/27/09
We're talking about a single city. Yes, this affects a bunch of screens, and will affect receipts to some degree... but it's hardly likely to "poison" Wolverine's overall box office take. Hell, you could actually close down every screen in NYC and the movie would still do enormous business. This is a pretty long reach for relevance.
By Cris at 1:30 AM ON 04/28/09
The problem is that the Mexico City metropolitan area amounts to 1/4 of all the country population.
By Al at 1:31 AM ON 04/28/09
Yes, let's go from complaining and criticizing a movie that hasn't opened yet to saying that it will fail for a bug that's killed so many people...in Mexico.
Let's not think about how many people actually die from the regular flu in the US every year and have no affect on movie sales. No, let's make a prediction for this weekend on an epidemic (no! A pandemic!) that hasn't happened.
Oooh, I think I'll be a shut in before Wolverine is shown in one theater!
"SyFy" is living up to the stupidity of its new name.
By Son of a Maui Portagee at 7:29 AM ON 04/28/09
It definitely is a puzzle why SciFi singled out this one movie to suffer?
If theaters are closed isn't that pretty much going to poison all movies?
And the way the media is hyping up the "threat" in the SouthWest US it'll be a wonder that anyone in those areas bothers to risk seeing any movie in the next few weeks.
By Gumbercules at 7:53 AM ON 04/28/09
I think this theory is kind of silly, too, but let's give credit where credit is due - SyFy is just reporting on a story posted in Variety. I hardly think they came up with the theory.
By Al at 10:45 AM ON 04/28/09
Of course! I knew there had to be a good reason for this. After all, whenever I'm looking for good information on current science fiction news I always pick up Variety first!
SyFy is credible again!
I can sleep now.
By Son of a Maui Portagee at 1:44 PM ON 04/28/09
Gumbercules,
While your attribution is accurate, Sci-Fi made an editorial decision to carry and repeat it. They are very much responsible for deciding to carry it and "report" on it in the manner that they did. And they most especially ARE responsible for creating the headline:
"Swine flu could poison X-Men Origins: Wolverine box office"
versus the original:
"Swine flu may hurt 'Wolverine' bow"
Please note: Titles and headlines are not copyrightable.
besides these ""may" and "could" verbs are very weak "reporting" if one could even deign to call it that.
For example:
An award-wining pig named Flu could be on the flight transporting all copies of the X-MEN:ORIGINS film to its Mexico City premier. It may escape its air carrier cage and lead to the crash of the aircraft. This may hurt the movie's bow.
By Son of a Maui Portagee at 3:15 AM ON 04/29/09
I really don't get SciFi's editorial decision making process:
www.variety.com/article/VR1118002963.html?categoryId=13
Now that there's some actual news of the studios canceling their premiers, there's no update.
Visit mobile.syfy.com/wire on your mobile device.
Son of a Maui Portagee:
I really don't get SciFi's editorial decision making process: www.variety.com/article/VR1118002963.html?categoryId...More »