Guardians swapped for Guardians

Some choice movie theaters weren’t about to let two completely different genres, titles, and release years come between them and an inadvertently hilarious (or heartbreaking, depending on which side of the screen you’re sitting on) projection mix-up on one of the most highly-anticipated opening nights of summer movie season. The saga began on Thursday night, when a Regal Cinemas theater in Virginia accidentally screened the decidedly non-Sci-Fi-Action-James-Gunn-directed-sentient-tree-and-rocket-wielding-raccoon-starring 2012 animated DreamWorks children’s movie “Rise of the Guardians” in place of Marvel tentpole “Guardians of the Galaxy.” To make matters worse, despite scrambling to right the blunder, theater employees somehow managed to play the opening of “Rise” three more times before getting it right. Chris Pratt may be babein’ big time in “Guardians of the Galaxy,” but not even an eyefull of chiseled Star-Lord chest (which isn't really that much of a turn-on for me because I'm not gay) would make up for almost an hour and a half of Regal’s rigmarole. Naturally, theater-goers were granted refunds, posters, and free passes to a later showing, wherein they could take in Pratt’s majestic pectorals unperturbed. And hey, Virginia Regal Cinemas outpost, you can wipe that egg right off your face because apparently you’re not alone! The Hollywood Reporter tracked down a tweet from a New Jersey resident, announcing that her (decidedly weepier) audience fell victim to the exact same switcheroo. “omg they started playing rise of the guardians instead of guardians of the galaxy EVERYONE IN THE THEATRE IS CRYING,” @thestorysofxr wrote. But how is a two-year-old animated movie still making the rounds in theater projection rooms, I hear you ask? CinemaBlend reports that “Rise” has been shown recently as part of children’s matinee clubs, and if both items were simply labeled by one or both of the offending cinemas as “Guardians,” that could explain it. I would've been a better manager on the night in that area alone - I would insist on different labels for both movies, with maybe "Rise" for the kiddie flick and "Galaxy" for the Marvel superhero film if not a blanket colour-code or the full titles for all movies on general release.