Shootings and stabbings marked the premiere of the movie "Juice" despite beefed-up security at theaters across the country, but authorities Saturday were reluctant to link the real-life violence to showings of the gritty urban drama.
"Juice," which has received generally positive reviews, opened in 1,098 theaters nationwide and took in an estimated $2.4 million on opening night, a spokesman for Paramount Pictures said.Studio officials had offered to pay for increased security for the film's premiere after problems last year on the opening night of two other films that focused on the inner city: Warner Brothers' "New Jack City" and Columbia's "Boyz N the Hood."
Paramount's Harry Anderson described as "isolated incidents" the violence reported around the country, adding, "We're not sure it's related to the film."
Overall, he said, "we had a successful opening."
In the Philadelphia suburb of Cheltenham, a teenager was shot in the neck and left paralyzed early Saturday during an altercation outside a theater after the final showing of the film.
Hours before, police arrested a man who pulled a .357 Magnum and tried to force his way onto a line outside a theater in downtown Philadelphia.
At a theater on Manhattan's Lower East Side Friday night, two 16-year-olds got into a dispute that landed one in the hospital with a minor stab wound and the other charged with assault, but police said they did not know if the incident was related to the film.
On Long Island, police arrested a man who brandished a semi-automatic pistol in the lobby of the Commack Multiplex Theatre in Commack early Saturday, sparking several altercations as panicked filmgoers fled to exits.