The families of the Aurora shooting victims are planning to boycott the theatre's reopening reception.
The cinema, in which 12 people were killed in a mass shooting in June last year during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises, is due to be back in business this month. The cinema sent an invitation to the family members of the victims to attend a free movie opening, welcoming them to a "special night of remembrance."
15 family members backlashed Cinemark, labelling the invitation "disgusting" and a "thinly vieled publicity ploy" with awful timing, making their first holiday season without their loved ones even more difficult for them. Nine relatives of the 12 people killed in the shoot expressed their outrage by writing a letter to the Cinemark headquarters. They feel that Cinemark hasn't shown them sympathy or given them much attention before they were sent this invitation. The letter claims the cinema chain repeatedly refused to meet with family members without lawyers present and did not offer their condolences to the families after the shooting.
Cinemark is also currently being sued by victims of the shooting for its lack of security during the night of the gunfire. However, a survey conducted by the city of Aurora showed that most of the residents were in favour of the idea to reopen the theatre and the community supported the renovation of the theatre room in which the shooting occured.
As with any other business, the Century 16 theatre had to reopen eventually. Do you think the invitation to the victims was an insensitive, badly timed publicity ploy or a simple gesture of honouring the victims during its reopening?
