SALT LAKE CITY, UT — A chain of Utah theaters already infamous for refusing to exhibit the Academy Award-winning film Brokeback Mountain because it contains homosexual themes now has decided not to screen Zack and Miri Make a Porno when the movie opens on Friday. According to distributor The Weinstein Co., Megaplex Theaters is the only chain in the state to decline the film.Megaplex general manager Cal Gunderson told The New York Post the chain — which operates 70 screens in five facilities located in Salt Lake City, Ogden, Lehi, Sandy and South Jordan — has a strict policy of declining movies that glorify sexuality. However, in April the chain screened Forgetting Sarah Marshall, a comedy in which star Jason Segel faces the camera naked. In October, the chain showed Sex Drive, which contains copious sexual dialogue and bare skin.
The Zack and Miri decision, combined with previous Megaplex decisions to show graphically violent, gory films including Saw V, has prompted a public outcry about hypocrisy.
Zack and Miri, which stars Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks as roommates who decide to make an adult movie in order to pay off debts, received an R rating from the Motion Picture Association of America. The comedy contains brief nudity and adult themes, but no sexual activity.
“People are really responding to the romantic-comedy part of the film,” Steve Bunnell, chairman of domestic distribution for The Weinstein Co., told the Salt Lake Tribune.
The movie is expected to play in about 2,800 theaters nationwide, including Utah theaters owned by Cinemark and Carmike. In addition, the film is scheduled to screen at the Salt Lake Film Society’s not-for-profit Broadway Centre Cinemas in downtown Salt Lake City. The society’s director told the Tribune the film was of interest to its art-house clientele because of director Kevin Smith’s history as an independent filmmaker.
