A film written by a Deptford director about gangs in Lewisham has already made £2.9m, despite being banned from more than 100 cinemas.

Blue Story was withdrawn from Vue and Showcase cinemas after seven police officers were injured in a disturbance at Star City in Birmingham on Saturday, where there were reports of youths with machetes.

However, director Andrew Onwubolu told BBC Breakfast there was "no connection" between the Birmingham brawl and his movie, and questioned whether there were "hidden reasons".

It has also been suggested that the decision to cancel the screenings was racially motivated.

Both cinema chains have since reinstated the film following a backlash, which made £1.3m on its November 22 opening weekend, according to figures from ComScore.

Tim Richards, founder and chief executive of Vue International, told the PA news agency they "agonised" over the decision to pull the film, but had to prioritise the safety of staff and customers after 25 incidents at 16 cinemas.

He said a number of the incidents took place on Friday.

"Birmingham was part of our decision, but just a part of it," he said.

Richards went on: "I have spent 20 years of my life supporting and promoting diversity and British and independent film.

"To call me personally or corporately racist is very, very disturbing and with no merit at all.

"Racism does not enter into the equation at all. Never has. It's the opposite."

Richards said he knew Blue Story was "an important movie" and that he had never wanted to withdraw it.

The film follows the lives of two boys caught up on opposite sides of a postcode war, and is set in Lewisham and Peckham.

Onwubolu, also known as Rapman, tweeted following the news writing: "Thanks to ALL of your cries for justice @vue have decided to reinstate the @bluestorymovie back into their screens starting this weekend.

"Thank you to everyone who fought for this movie like it was their own. We made a lot of noise and now we've been heard".

Vue said that during the first 24 hours of screenings, Vue recorded 25 incidents, which they said were significant and directly related, in 16 cinemas.

These were documented with CCTV footage, police call logs, and detailed incident reports to security or medical authorities, and in a dozen of those incidents, the police had to be called.