Theater pulls 50 Cent film after shooting

Rapper says he is saddened by murder

	Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson stars in the semi-autobiographical "Get Rich or Die Tryin'," which has drawn its share of controversy. Previously, billboards for the film showing 50 Cent holding a gun were pulled after protest.
Michael Gibson / AP

Movie video

'Salt': July 23
Angelina Jolie is Evelyn Salt, a CIA agent accused of being a Russian spy. As Salt uses her years of training to elude capture, her actions cause concern over what her true motives may be.

Moore on new Tom Ford flick

Harry Potter is back, with a LEGO update

Pregnant Amy Adams ‘feeling really good’

Damon and Freeman on ‘Invictus’

Slideshow

December movies
James Cameron’s spectacle “Avatar” hits theaters, along with George Clooney, who is “Up in the Air,” and Robert Downey Jr. as “Sherlock Holmes.”

more photos

updated 7:22 p.m. ET Nov. 11, 2005

HOMESTEAD, Pa. - 50 Cent said he was saddened by the fatal shooting at a theater where his movie “Get Rich or Die Tryin”’ was playing.

“I feel for the victim’s family in this situation,” 50 Cent said on ABC’s “The View” on Friday. “But you know, these weren’t kids. This was a 30-year-old man [who] had a dispute with three other guys.”

Shelton Flowers, 30, was shot at least three times Wednesday night after he got into an argument with another man inside a Loews multiplex just east of Pittsburgh.

Story continues below ↓

advertisement | your ad here

Allegheny County police said Flowers had just watched 50 Cent’s movie and got into a confrontation with three men in the bathroom. A fight ensued and spilled out into the concessions area, where Flowers was shot, police said.

Click for related content

No one has been arrested.

It was not known what movie the three men had seen, but John McCauley, the vice president of marketing for Loews Corp., said the company decided to stop showing it at the theater during the investigation.

The violence in the film prompted another theater chain, National Amusements, to end any midnight showings in a Toledo, Ohio, neighborhood where rioting occurred last month after a neo-Nazi group visited the city. Businesses were burned and looted, and bricks thrown at police.

Police raised concerns that the film might lead to more unrest.

The theater will continue matinee and evening showings, spokesman Brian Callaghan said Friday.