Sales of adult halloween masks depicting The Dark Knight Rises version of Batman villain Bane have spiked during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, The Hollywood Reporter reports.
Portrayed by Tom Hardy in Dark Knight Rises, that version of Bane wears a gas mask that pumps painkilling gas into his lungs. Though the plastic costume versions of the mask don’t possess any medical safety capabilities and don’t meet the CDC’s recommendations for cloth masks, sales of Bane masks – and costume masks in general – spiked in April and early May, according to Costume.com spokesman David DeJac.
“Looking at sales figures, the adult mask had quite a sales spike in April and early May, which is unusual for this time of year,” DeJac told THR. “We have had an unusual increase in sales and searches for masks, especially for this time of year. The extra activity seems to be across the board of mask categories, rather than overwhelming consistency in any one area, probably since any searches using the word ‘mask’ are showing up much more frequently than normal.”
DeJac also explained that most recent Bane purchases through Costume.com have included only the mask and not the bodysuit that goes with it – and that Bane, along with President Donald Trump, was one of the site’s most popular mask searches.