Superstorm rattles entertainment industry

[October 30, 2012]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Video gamers in the Northeast angling to be among the first to play the highly anticipated "Assassin's Creed III" will have to wait a little longer -- even if they have power.

Area GameStop stores cancelled their midnight launches of Ubisoft's historical action sequel as Superstorm Sandy continued to disrupt the New York entertainment scene, including Broadway, talk shows, concerts and the premiere of "Anna Karenina."

New York City officials said that all film permits for Monday and Tuesday were revoked because of the storm and associated safety precautions.

"There will be no city authorized outdoor filming within the five boroughs," read a statement Monday from the Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting.

Production was affected on several TV shows, including "Gossip Girl," "Person of Interest," "Smash," "666 Park Avenue" and "Elementary." "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" also took Monday night off, and all 40 Broadway theaters will be dark through Tuesday.

The storm halted production on a few films as well, including Akiva Goldsman's "Winter's Tale" and Darren Aronofsky's "Noah."

"I take it that the irony of a massive storm holding up the production of `Noah' is not lost," tweeted actress Emma Watson.

The storm forced Focus Features to postpone the Manhattan premiere of "Anna Karenina," which was set for Tuesday.

Jimmy Kimmel canceled his late night ABC talk show Monday. He was scheduled to host his Hollywood-based "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" all week from Brooklyn, where he was born. ABC said the network was hopeful Kimmel's show would return Tuesday with guests Howard Stern, Tracy Morgan, and Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. David Letterman and Jimmy Fallon taped their talk shows without audiences.

"Theater owners here in New York had to cancel all the Broadway shows today," Fallon said in his opening monologue Monday. "Many performers were having trouble making it in to the city, and you could tell by that one show, `Blue Man Guy.'"

Some network schedules were shaken up by the widespread power outages cutting into the available TV audience in the East.

CBS aired repeats instead of new episodes Monday night of "How I Met Your Mother," "Partners," "2 Broke Girls" and "Mike & Molly." A CBS News special on Sandy pre-empted "Hawaii Five-O."

The CW opted to air repeats of "90210" and "Gossip Girl."

ABC stuck to its schedule of new episodes of "Dancing with the Stars" and "Castle." Fox broadcast a previously scheduled rerun of "The X Factor," which had been planned if the San Francisco-Detroit World Series ended, as it did, in four games.

NBC aired fresh installments of "The Voice" and "Revolution."

Several stations interrupted network broadcasts with live news coverage of the storm.

ABC's "Good Morning America," NBC's "Today" show and "CBS This Morning" were expected to air live as usual Tuesday with extensive storm coverage. The daytime talk show "Live! With Kelly and Michael" planned to air a rerun Tuesday.

Sandy took a toll on the movie box office even before it made landfall. Ticket sales were down more than 11 percent compared to the same weekend last year, said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. This weekend's top film, "Argo," collected $12.1 million. The top film during the same weekend in 2011, "Puss in Boots," earned $34 million.

Several movie theaters remained closed Money night.

Concerts planned for New York and New Jersey were canceled or postponed, including performances by Journey, comedian Louis C.K., and the "Freedom to Love Now" show featuring Rufus Wainwright and fun., which is now set for spring of 2013.

Radio City Music Hall was shuttered until Wednesday. Carnegie Hall postponed concerts planned for Tuesday. Off-Broadway shows and even national tours of Broadway shows like "Anything Goes," currently in Wilmington, Del., closed their doors.

It was the most detrimental storm for the theater community since the threat of Hurricane Irene in late August 2011 prompted producers to cancel matinee and evening performances on both a Saturday and Sunday.

East Coast charity galas were also canceled, and fashion designer Prabal Gurung postponed the unveiling of his anticipated collection for Target until next week.

[Associated Press; By DERRIK J. LANG]

AP Entertainment Writers Mark Kennedy and Jake Coyle in New York, and Sandy Cohen and Lynn Elber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://twitter.com/derrikjlang.

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