Robot 6
Fight breaks out during Dark Knight Rises screening, triggering panic
A 51-year-old man faces charges after a fight broke out Sunday during a screening of The Dark Knight Rises, sending a panicked audience at a Pittsburgh-area theater fleeing for the exits.
While police were quick to note that the incident wasn’t connected to the Friday shooting in Aurora, Colorado, that left 12 dead and dozens wounded, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports an escalating argument, jittery nerves and a shout of “Gun!” led to the mad scramble for the doors.
According to police, the incident began in the restroom, where a rude child repeatedly knocked on the door of an occupied stall. The child swore at the man, who then confronted the mother, and eventually hit her in the face. That’s when someone shouted “Gun!” and triggered a panic among theater-goers. The unidentified man will be charged with simple assault, disorderly conduct and harassment.

19 Comments
Chris Deneen
July 23, 2012 at 1:07 pm
How is this connected to TDKR? Because a fight breaks out in a theater where it was playing?
Federico Kereki
July 23, 2012 at 1:14 pm
A woman was in the men’s restroom?
redvector
July 23, 2012 at 1:21 pm
Because of the Aurora shooting a cloud of negativity, fear and tragedy will forever be attached to this movie. That’s just an inescapable fact. If there’s many more incidents like this one the movie may be pulled by the studio.
Todd
July 23, 2012 at 1:24 pm
I don’t the movie will be pulled.
Todd
July 23, 2012 at 1:24 pm
doubt
KaraokeFanboy
July 23, 2012 at 1:28 pm
This is a poorly written synopsis of events, firstly in the Gazette. The article says the incident “started” in the bathroom, meaning maybe the man then saw the kid in the theater with his mom, that must be where he hit her, someone shouted, etc.
Christopher
July 23, 2012 at 1:42 pm
Man, between the cultish online fanboys, the tragic shooting and these type of reports, real life is starting to mirror John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness a bit too much. Let’s just say I wouldn’t be suprised to hear that there’s been recent Cthulhu sightnings…
Joe H
July 23, 2012 at 1:43 pm
My friend said that while he was watching TDKR that there was a cop patrolling the theater. And I don’t mean the whole theater, but the one room playing TDKR.
Paul
July 23, 2012 at 1:47 pm
The studio isn’t going to pull a movie that brought in 162 million dollars in its opening weekend.
Paul G
July 23, 2012 at 2:09 pm
How is it that the writer calls the child rude? I hate this type of “journalism”. Leave your opinion out of it and report the facts, not your commentary.
Lando
July 23, 2012 at 2:13 pm
I agree with KaraokeFanboy, I’m very confused here. Where did the arguement between the man and the mother happen? Doesn’t seem like it was during the screening of the movie, just in the over-all movie theater itself.
Snikt Snakt
July 23, 2012 at 2:13 pm
Now I remember why I wait several weeks to see the Blockbuster movies in theatres.
Let all the IDIOTS/JERKS go see it first and get out of the way for the others who want a nice experience!!!
Snikt Snakt
July 23, 2012 at 2:17 pm
Paul G, did you miss this part?
“the incident began in the restroom, where a rude child repeatedly knocked on the door of an occupied stall. The child swore at at the man”
I guess where you’re from thats considered proper behavior?!?
If I did that, I’d expect a free ticket to Fat Lip, Arizona when the guy got out of the stall…
Mike
July 23, 2012 at 2:50 pm
@Snikt Snakt
I don’t know if the guy should have hit the kid, or anyone for that matter.
A similar situation happened to me once. I was went to see Star Wars in Concert a few years ago and had a kid kicking the back of my seat the ENTIRE concert. And when I say entire, I mean from start to finish.
I tried to non-verbally communicate to the kids grandfather to get her to stop. He ignored me.
It was rough because I didn’t know how to deal with that short of confronting the grandfather, like this guy did.
So yeah, kids are obnoxious, their guardians don’t take responsibility for their behavior, but you still don’t need to be hitting women/grandfathers/whatever, you know?
Kater
July 23, 2012 at 3:32 pm
And tomorrow’s breaking headline: Old lady farted during TDKR screening, someone yelled “gas!”, triggering a panic.
Come on, that’s not news, that’s fishing for attention. Robot 6 is better than that!
Dawnell_do
July 23, 2012 at 3:50 pm
I said it before and i’ll say it again, people are stupid.
Eric
July 23, 2012 at 6:28 pm
People need to stop having kids, and if people have kids, you need to not go out in public. Your lives are over, deal with it.
Will
July 23, 2012 at 6:39 pm
I know this theater. It can sometime be rough there because of the community it’s in. It’s in a shopping area converted from an old steel mill, but a large part of the population that goes there is an inner-city rough crowd.
In fact, one Christmas, I saw National Treasure there and missed a riot that broke out there by about 20 minutes.
Faust
July 25, 2012 at 6:13 am
God, this movie is jinked! …. Although the incidents have only happened in one country, so maybe its just American people…
The only thing that happened when I went to see it, was that both me and my mate were both restless by the 2 hour mark….