'Iron Man' Stunt Goes Wrong When Actor Carrying Fake Gun Comes Into Missouri Theater [VIDEO]

Publicity stunts can be risky. They can successfully brand an entity, embedding it in its customers' minds, or if can fail epically.

Sometimes they can even generate a lot of unwanted attention, especially from the law. In a recent publicity stunt for "Iron Man 3," moviegoers in Missouri called the police when they saw what they thought was a man carrying an assault weapon into a movie theater.

But what looked like disaster was nothing more than an innocent promotion from the management of Goodrich Capital 8 Theater in Jefferson City, according to Yahoo News.

The promotion featured actors dressed to look like members of S.H.I.E.L.D., the superhero agency from Marvel Comics. S.H.I.E.L.D. appears in the "Iron Man" and "Avengers" films.

The performance instead caused several moviegoers to call authorities, perhaps in light of the movie theater shooting at the in Aurora, Colo., last summer at the premiere of the Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises.

Manager of the theater chain, Bob Wilkins, apologized to cinemagoers for not warning them that there would be a performance following the film.

"We apologize and are sympathetic to those who felt they were in harm's way with our character promotion for Iron Man 3," he said in a statement. "This was not a publicity stunt. We have worked with the Cosplacon group on many movies to dress up and help entertain our customers. We have had many complaints about the members dressed specifically as S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives carrying fake guns.

"We didn't clearly tell our customers and some people didn't realize it was for entertainment purposes only. We apologize that police were called to come out to our theater...Going forward we will take the necessary steps to make sure this doesn't happen again. Security and safety for our customers is our number one priority."

Wilkins did not regret having the performance take place, however, saying his job is "to entertain people."