Paramount Pictures said it cancelled the star-studded event in Pittsburgh, where the film was made, "out of honour and respect for the families of the victims whose lives were senselessly taken." The film will formally debut on Wednesday in Pittsburgh, but without red carpet, Paramount said, and open in theatres on Friday.
It was unclear if there was also a strategic decision behind the postponement, given the level of competition for media audience from the Newtown, Connecticut, school massacre, where 20 six-and-seven-year-olds and six adults were slaughtered on Friday. A similar calculation may also have been behind the decision of Fox to cancel the red carpet premiere for the Billy Crystal and Bette Midler movie, Parental Guidance, in which a pair of grandparents are challenged to look after an unruly brood of offspring.
Other cancellations included new episodes of Family Guy and American Dad, which were reported to have "potentially sensitive content." Saturday Night Live, the comedy show that's a US institution, swapped its traditional opening skit for a children's choir singing the Christmas carol, Silent Night - a move that was widely greeted with approval.
But elsewhere, the entertainment industry was widely condemned for glorifying violence in movies, TV shows and video games, for thrusting microphones in the faces of grieving families and shell-shocked kids, and for focusing on the identity of the killer rather than on those of his innocent victims.
Even stories about the victims were controversial. This was clear to see on Twitter when journalists from ABC News and The New York Times met a barrage of expletives when they tried to reach out to people connected with the massacre's victims. "You piece of shit, leave her alone," was one of the more polite reactions Sam Dolnick of the Times received. "Shame on you - trashy reporter chasing tragedy for a headline and making killers famous," said another tweet.
Media professor Robert Thompson of Syracuse University understands the concern and sees the reaction as a result of the round-the-clock coverage given by the US media. "It's not written in stone that there has to be wall to wall coverage," he told dpa. "But when these horrible things happen they become a macabre ritual that plays out through television - it goes back to radio and the days of Pearl Harbour."
"The coverage of such events is always deeply personal, and if you cover it this way, it's a logical decision. They weren't ambushing anybody." Amongst Hollywood stars there was contrition, denial and everything in between. There was sharp disagreement even within the team that made the fiercely violent new movie Django Unchained, a story of a former slave on a trail of revenge.
Quentin Tarantino, the filmmaker who is notorious for the level of gore he displays in his work, defended his use of violence at a press event about the film on Saturday, according to BBC. "I just think, you know, there's violence in the world, tragedies happen," Tarantino said. "It's a western. Give me a break." But a star of the movie, Jamie Foxx, had a different perspective. "We cannot turn our back and say that violence in films or anything that we do doesn't have a sort of influence. It does," Foxx said.