Studio withholds box office data after Batman killings

A sign listing movie times at Regal Cinemas at Crossgates Mall shows two afternoon showings for the movie The Dark Knight Rises are sold out, in Albany, N.Y., on Friday, July 20, 2012. AP FILE PHOTO

LOS ANGELES – Warner Brothers is withholding data on weekend box office takings from “The Dark Knight Rises” out of respect for victims of the Colorado massacre, a studio spokeswoman said Saturday.

The announcement came as industry daily Variety reported that the Batman movie finale made an estimated $75 million in the US on Friday, the third biggest opening ever.

Rival studios, including Disney, Sony and Universal, have followed suit in saying they will not report box office takings, Variety reported.

“Out of respect for the victims and their families, Warner Bros. Pictures will not be reporting box office numbers for ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ throughout the weekend,” a Warner Bros spokesman said.

“Box office numbers will be released on Monday.”

Variety cited rival studios’ data for its $75 million estimate for Friday takings, which include midnight Thursday screenings like the one in Colorado, where 12 people were killed and 58 injured in shooting.

The box office figure, if confirmed, would put the Batman movie third behind last year’s “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” which earned $91.1 million, and this year’s blockbuster “The Avengers,” with $80.8 million, Variety said.

Suspected gunman James Holmes was arrested shortly after the shooting at a midnight premiere screening early Friday in Aurora, Colorado, in which he was clad all in black with full body armor and a gas mask.

Bomb experts are still working to defuse a sophisticated system of booby traps in the 24-year-old’s nearby apartment, which police say were set up possibly to kill officers arriving to search it after the massacre.