A cinema chain in Thailand has halted screenings of the latest instalment in the "Hunger Games" franchise. Three people, including two students were arrested on Tuesday for using the three-finger salute featured in "Mockingjay, Part 1" during a speech by General Prayuth Chan-ocha, the military-appointed prime minister. The three-finger salute has been used as a sign of protest in the wake of the country's military coup in May.
The Apex Group, which operates two cinemas in Bangkok's Siam Square district, said it had stopped screening the film and replaced it with Woody Allen's "Magic In The Moonlight." Apex said that its decision was not directly connected to the student arrests. The chain said that it had been asked to sell 200 tickets to the film at its Scala theatre and later discovered that 160 of them were being offered for free on Facebook, by an anti-coup group. The League of Liberal Thammasat for Democracy on Sunday said it would give out 160 tickets for the premiere at Scala, calling its efforts "Raise Three Fingers, Bring Popcorn and Go to Theatre." Apex said that it halted the film because its screens were "being used for political activism."
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