Boycott Urged After Theater Seeks $700K From Shooting Victims

'Don't add to their $194 million profit while they come after Aurora victims'
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 2, 2016 1:49 PM CDT
Boycott Urged After Theater Seeks $700K From Shooting Victims
People are urging a boycott of the Cinemark theater chain after it was revealed this week it is seeking to recoup $700,000 from the victims of the deadly 2012 shooting at a Colorado movie theater.   (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)

Calls for a boycott of Cinemark are gaining steam after it was revealed this week that the country's third-largest theater chain was seeking to recoup $700,000 in legal fees from the victims of the deadly Colorado movie theater shooting, the Guardian reports. “Please boycott Cinemark," tweets Sandy Phillips, whose daughter was killed in the 2012 shooting. "Don't add to their $194 million profit while they come after Aurora victims who have lost everything.” More than two-dozen victims and their families had sued Cinemark for not doing enough to prevent the shooting, such as hiring armed guards and installing alarms on emergency exits. A jury ruled against them in May.

Colorado law allows for the winners of civil suits to seek compensation for legal fees, Deadline reports. But when news broke that Cinemark planned to do just that, it wasn't long before the hashtag #BoycottCinemark started trending. "Shameful!" tweets California Lieutenant Gov. Gavin Newsom, a staunch advocate for gun control. Cinemark's most recent quarterly revenue was more than $700 million. The people the theater chain is seeking money from include the families of two men who helped save others, the family of a young boy who was shot in the head, and a woman who held her own intestines in after being shot. A judge still needs to approve the $700,000 request. (More Aurora theater massacre stories.)

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