Will Anyone Go to the Movies This Weekend?

The nation’s somber mood is expected to touch moviegoers this weekend, with few advance ticket sales so far and only two new films opening nationwide--a story of self-redemption, “Hardball,” and the teen thriller “The Glass House.”

After Tuesday’s terror attack on the Word Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon left thousands of people dead or missing, a lot of media attention focused on the movie studios delaying films with terrorist elements, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Collateral Damage.”

By the time the tragedy occurred, however, film prints of the two new movies had already been distributed, and the industry feeling was along the lines of “the show must go on.”

“Hardball” director Brian Robbins said it was difficult to talk about moviegoing after such a horrific event, but like others, he noted that Hollywood has a traditional role of providing entertainment during difficult times.

“This pales in comparison to what is going on in the world,” he said. “It’s hard to say, ‘Go see a movie,’ but it sort of feels like if you are going to want some entertainment, [‘Hardball’] is a movie to see.”

Still, moviegoers appear to be in no mood for a film.

Online ticket service Fandango (https://www.fandango.com) reports very few advance ticket sales for this weekend.

A Fandango spokesman said the figure appears to be so low that there wasn’t much point in calculating how far it had dropped from a normal weekend.

“It’s going to be very slow, but I don’t think anyone is complaining,” spokesman John Singh said.

That feeling seemed to run throughout the movie exhibition industry Friday.

“We’re just going to take it as it happens,” said Brian Callaghan, spokesman for General Cinema Corp., a Massachusetts-based chain of 75 movie houses in 19 states.

“If people want to come out, we’ll be there for them. If they choose to stay at home, that’s totally fine by us.”

Callaghan said that as the weekend drew near, his company had seen more people getting out of their homes and away from the constant television news coverage of Tuesday’s deadly attack.

He also said there are plenty of movies in theaters such as “The Princess Diaries” or “Legally Blonde” that are lighthearted and entertaining.