The sessions of the American boxing film gave rise to fights between spectators in certain French rooms.
Fights broke out on Saturday March 4 in several cinemas in Saint-Etienne (Loire), Thionville (Moselle) and Charleville-Mézières (Ardennes) during the screening of the boxing film Creed III, learned Monday, March 6, franceinfo from a source close to the investigation. Three people were arrested.
Saturday afternoon, around twenty people wanted to fight at the start of the screening in the Mégarama de Saint-Etienne, located on Place Jean Jaurès. The police went to the scene. There were no damages. According to France Bleu Saint-Etienne Loire, 300 people were present in the room when the fight broke out. Cans and bottles were thrown, injuring a cinema security guard in the head. The police did not arrest anyone but about twenty identity checks were carried out. The manager of the room did not wish to file a complaint.
A room evacuated in Thionville
Still from a source close to the investigation, in the middle of the evening in Thionville, the police asked 500 people to evacuate the Kinépolis room where the film was screened because of a giant fight. One person has been taken into custody. The next session was cancelled. The Thionville prosecutor specifies for his part that the altercations took place on the sidelines of the screening of the film and not in the room. “They took place in the hall before continuing in the parking lot without causing injury”. The minor who was arrested is now released. There was no complaint filed.
At the end of the evening, this time in Charleville-Mézières, a hundred people had to be evacuated from the Metropolis before the start of the film. The projection – which had not started – was therefore interrupted. The two individuals identified as being at the origin of the fight in the cinema hall, a 20-year-old man and a minor, were placed in police custody for “violence in a meeting”. Their custody has since been lifted. When they arrived at the scene, the police saw several people gathering in front of the cinema to fight. The first elements make it possible to say that a verbal altercation unrelated to the film broke out between spectators before the screening, resulting in a fight. The investigation is continuing to find out the exact course of events.
An “epiphenomenon”?
The local police stations are in charge of the investigations. Other fights have already broken out in several Parisian cinemas since March 1. Videos were broadcast on social networks, thus becoming “challenges” to be taken up.
In Haute-Savoie, Philippe Baud, manager of Cinémonde, a group of cinemas has decided to stop screenings of the film since Saturday Creed III At the movie theater “Studio 6” located in the town of Annemasse. He explains to franceinfo that there was “too many problems in session” but “no fighting, no damage to the cinema”. “It’s disappointing”he says “but that’s the unfortunate conclusion of the situation”. He promises that seats reserved or purchased in advance at the cinema will be reimbursed.
For its part, the National Federation of French Cinema does not say it is worried and speaks of“epiphenomenon” : of the 20,000 daily screenings in France, 2,500 are devoted to the screening of the film Creed III And “over all these sessions, we have identified up to 30 cases where there have been overflows”says Marc-Olivier Sebbag, general delegate of the FNCF.