Cinemark Still Won’t Address Aurora Questions And Its Fallout

COMMENTS (7)

• I’ve been in lots of theaters & none of them have alarmed fire exits.
  Ever since the start of the multiplexes, people have been using the fire exits to leave due to the cramped lobbies & slowness at leaving after a show. There are rarely more than two sets of aisles & doors to the lobby.
  In addition, if they were alarmed, idiot people would deliberately open the doors just to set off the alarms.
  The old movie palaces had many aisles, doors & lobbies, plus their fire exits often ended up in alleys, not in the parking lot, so anyone that left the building that way had to walk around the block.
  The only alarmed fire exits I see on a regular basis are those at retailers like Costco & they alarm the doors as a theft prevention measure.

  Comment by Becca — Monday August 6, 2012 @ 10:08am EDT  Reply to this post

• 1. The doors aren’t actively alarmed so people can leave when they want to. At AMC they are in the front of the auditorium (often if not usually) being distraction enough. The operative question is : is it common knowledge that they are not alarmed? UH…Cinemark…uh…Cine/mark…Cine-mark…I’m not sure I’m getting the name right…is damned if they did and damned if they didn’t on this one.

  2. If the alarm went off every time a patron left through a fire exit how frustrated do you think the patrons would get? Crazy frustrated, right?

  3. Of course the usher can help, right? Just TRY to find an usher in these death traps while the movie is playing. All ills are addressed through a generic non-enforceable/non-enforced video announcement at the beginning of the show, correct? You know. Like noisy patrons and shining cell phones. Fortunately these problems never occur in movie theaters today. Yet another example of how slash-and-burn cost cutting in order to prop up stock price is not only Wall Street assault on the sensibilities of the average consumer but potentially on their family’s safety as well – not to mention yet another indicator/indictment of the “wisdom” of creating a cheap international labor force dancing to Wall Street/private equity’s tune – that eliminates jobs here.

  Comment by Mark K. — Monday August 6, 2012 @ 11:14am EDT  Reply to this post

• Aw, c’mon. Cinemark’s silence isn’t out of respect to the victims and their families, it’s out of respect to their private shareholders. The Abernathy MacGregor Group should counsel the company that silence raises more questions than it answers.

  The one issue that I haven’t seen discussed, however, is whether there was usher presence in the auditorium. An usher, even armed with a chrome flashlight, couldn’t have stopped the shooter, but he or she would have immediately closed the door once it was opened. A central security panel in the theatre would have had lights that indicated a door was open. You don’t need a noisy alarm if you have a staff.

  Comment by Santayana — Monday August 6, 2012 @ 11:59am EDT  Reply to this post

• I am not sure if alarms are even always required or necessary for Fire Doors. In this case, it would not make much sense. The main reason for a Fire Door is to help provide safe egress from a building during an emergency. If they are well marked, the alarm would not be needed.
  Presumably, these places have fire alarms that can be set off or will go off if the sprinklers engage. That seems safe enough, to me.

  Comment by Chuck Field — Monday August 6, 2012 @ 2:42pm EDT  Reply to this post

• The movie theaters around me have no alarms on their emergency exits. That is why people used to or may even still sneak in through those doors. Ushers are a thing of the past.

  BUT theaters around me (Philly) have Ushers/security at midnight shows with big releases. This theater can not and should not be blamed, but once again people need to blame something instead of where the blame belongs and that is on the jacknut that decided to commit the crime.

  Any lawsuits against the theater should be thrown out straight away. Good old American society nowadays.

  Comment by CJ — Monday August 6, 2012 @ 8:35pm EDT  Reply to this post

• In the face of tragedy such as this people always want to point fingers and find a scape goat and someone to blame. The person to blame is the Holmes kid. Not gun control law. Not guns. Not video games. Not movies. Not comic books. It was this deranged kid.

  I’ve been to many theaters and multiplexes without alarmed fire doors. They exist. Ultimately the question is would it really have prevented this? I’m not sure. If someone really has the intent to do ill will I think he will do it.

  Tons of restaurants have doors without fire alarms, someone logistically could go in and open fire at any time. So is it time to start metal detecting and fire alarming every door in the nation? Please.

  Comment by The Truth — Monday August 6, 2012 @ 8:45pm EDT  Reply to this post

• What about security cameras? I don’t know a single chain theater that doesn’t have them at every entrance and exit for security and to keep an eye on people sneaking in (and sneaking in video cameras!)

  If so, where they monitored? It might have not stopped what happened but perhaps first responders could have been there faster!

  Comment by Herb Finn — Tuesday August 7, 2012 @ 4:50am EDT  Reply to this post