Hundreds of posters advertising the upcoming final instalment of the Star Wars film saga have been stolen from bus stops across Mexico City, 20th Century Fox officials said.
The posters are made with a glow-in-the-dark material and cost about $6 (R38) each to make.
“We are one week from the world premiere and we practically have none of the 300 posters that we put up just days ago,” the 20th Century Fox marketing director for Mexico, Juan Carlos Lazo, said on Friday.
Lazo has already ordered 300 more posters, but he believes they will suffer the same fate.
“Every time there is a Star Wars movie, thieves steal everything, absolutely everything, even if we turn out a second or third round of posters,” Lazo complained.
Although posters of many highly awaited movies are also stolen, “nothing compares to the Star Wars movies”, he said.
The most spectacular theft was in 1997, when crooks took off with a giant 13m by 7m fabric ad for Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace hanging over a busy Mexico City avenue — in broad daylight.
By the time Episode II — Attack of the Clones rolled around in 2002, all the posters had vanished two days after they had been put up.
Director George Lucas’s final instalment of the saga — Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith — will have its worldwide premiere on May 19. — AFP