"Megaplex Theaters will not screen the comedy "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" when it opens nationwide Friday - once again opening the Utah theater chain to charges of hypocrisy for barring movies with strong sexuality but allowing films with graphic violence. The movie, which stars Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks as roommates who decide to make a sex film to pay off debts, received an R rating after director Kevin Smith successfully appealed an NC-17 ruling.
"People are really responding to the romantic-comedy part of the film," he said, comparing "Zack and Miri" to such hits as "Knocked Up" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," films that have played at Megaplex theaters.
"Zack and Miri" will play in about 2,800 theaters nationwide, Bunnell said. In Utah, the movie will screen at theaters owned by the Cinemark and Carmike chains, and at the not-for-profit Broadway.
The uproar over "Zack and Miri" is reminiscent of Megaplex owner Larry H. Miller's decision in January 2006 to pull "Brokeback Mountain," the Western drama starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as gay sheep herders".