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Topic: Cinemark tries to do a nice thing, gets angry response

Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 01-02-2013 04:01 PM

I guess I can see why families of those victims would never want to go back to the place again, but I think their response to Cinemark's gesture was a little sour grape-ish. Although, having never lost a loved one in this manner I obviously have no point of reference.

Anyway for them to belittle Cinemark's gesture and calling it a "quest for profits" is a little out-of-order. What were they supposed to do? Isn't there an old saying, if you fall off a horse you should get right back on?

Might have been better for Cinemark to just leave it alone...?

Cinemark Offers Tickets To Reopening Night For Aurora Victims' Families, Prompts Angry Response

Family members of those who were killed in the Aurora movie theater shooting sent an angry letter to Cinemark after being invited to "a special evening of remembrance" and a movie in the theater where their loved ones were massacred.

Relatives of eight of the victims signed the letter, saying they were especially angry that the invitations to the theater's reopening night were received so soon after the holidays.

quote: "Excerpt from the letter"
During the holiday we didn't think anyone or anything could make our grief worse but you, Cinemark, have managed to do just that by sending us an invitation two days after Christmas inviting us to attend the re-opening of your theater in Aurora where our loved ones were massacred.Thanks for making what is a very difficult holiday season that much more difficult. Timing is everything and yours is awful...

You (Cinemark) refused our repeated invitations to speak parent to parent with no lawyers involved. Instead, we get invited to attend a "special evening of remembrance" at the very theater where our loved ones lay dead on the floor for over 15 hours. We would give anything to wipe the carnage of that night out of our minds' eye. Thank you for reminding us how your quest for profits has blinded your leadership and made you so callous as to be oblivious to our mental anguish.

The letter also says that that Cinemark never reached out to family members to offer their condolences and that "telling us to be sure 'to reserve our tickets' is wholly offensive to the memory of our loved ones (Click over to The Denver Post to read the full letter).

On January 17th the Century 16 theater, owned by Cinemark, is set to reopen after renovations have been completed.

Theater No. 9, where 12 people were killed and 58 others were wounded on July 20, is reportedly going to be turned into one of Cinemark's "extreme digital cinemas" with a screen that stretches from ceiling to floor. That theater is also set to have 61 less seats than it had on the night of the shooting.

Fox31 reports that the Century 16 theater now has a mural on the outside, with the number 16 removed.

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper and Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan are both expected to attend the reopening of the theater, but family members of the shooting victims have said they are organizing a boycott of the event.

Last August, Hogan said there had been overwhelming support to reopen the theater after a community survey was conducted by the city.

Hogan called the theater's reopening "another step in the community's healing," but Lonnie Phillips, the stepfather of Jessica Ghawi, who died in the theater shooting, told the Dever Post he felt it was just the opposite.

"It's like people going back to a slaughterhouse, as far as I am concerned."

Denver Post article

Here is the full letter as reported in the Denver Post.

To the Management of Cinemark USA, Inc.:

During the holiday we didn't think anyone or anything could make our grief worse but you, Cinemark, have managed to do just that by sending us an invitation two days after Christmas inviting us to attend the re-opening of your theater in Aurora where our loved ones were massacred.Thanks for making what is a very difficult holiday season that much more difficult. Timing is everything and yours is awful.

You (Cinemark) has shown, and continues to show, ZERO compassion to the families of the victims whose loved ones were killed in their theater. You, Cinemark, have never once reached out to the families to offer condolences.

This disgusting offer that you'd "like to invite you and a guest to a special evening of remembrance on Thursday, January 17 at 5 PM" followed by the showing of a movie and then telling us to be sure "to reserve our tickets" is wholly offensive to the memory of our loved ones.

Our family members will never be on this earth with us again and a movie ticket and some token words from people who didn't care enough to reach out to us, nor respond when we reached out to them to talk, is appalling.

You (Cinemark) refused our repeated invitations to speak parent to parent with no lawyers involved. Instead, we get invited to attend a "special evening of remembrance" at the very theater where our loved ones lay dead on the floor for over 15 hours. We would give anything to wipe the carnage of that night out of our minds' eye. Thank you for reminding us how your quest for profits has blinded your leadership and made you so callous as to be oblivious to our mental anguish.

We, the families, recognize your thinly veiled publicity ploy for what it is: A great opportunity for you to distance yourselves and divert public scrutiny from your culpability in this massacre.

After reading our response to your ridiculously offensive invitation, you now know why we will not be attending your re-opening celebration and will be using every social media tool at our disposal to ask the other victims to ask their friends and family to honor us by boycotting the killing field of our children.

The Families of the Aurora Cinemark Theatre Massacre

Thomas Teves (father of Alex Teves)
Caren Teves (mother of Alex Teves)
Sandy Phillips (mother of Jessica Ghawi)
Lonnie Phillips (stepfather of Jessica Ghawi)
Jerri Jackson (mother of Matt McQuinn)
Greg Medek (father of Micayla Medek)
Rena Medek (mother of Micayla Medek)
Anita Busch (cousin of Greg and Micayla Medek)
Robert Wingo, (father of Rebecca Ann Wingo's two children)
Scott Larimer (father of John Larimer)
Kathleen Larimer (mother of John Larimer)
Jessica Watts (cousin of Jonathan Blunk)
Robert Sullivan (grandfather of Veronica Moser-Sullivan)
Sue Sullivan (grandmother of Veronica Moser-Sullivan)
Cassandra Sullivan (widow of Alex Sullivan)