Medical Emergency Stops ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ Industry Screening
An entertainment industry screening of Universal’s “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” was halted Tuesday after an unidentified man suffered a medical emergency.
Attendees began yelling that the man needed medical attention during the latter part of the screening of the 128-minute movie at the AMC Century City 15 multiplex.
A rep for Universal told Variety that a studio executive who was in attendance at the screening, which began at 2 p.m., immediately left the theater and called emergency services. One attendee said the film played for about five more minutes before the lights came up and paramedics arrived. The Universal rep also indicated that the unidentified man survived the episode but had no further detail.
Several attendees noted on Twitter that they had been required to surrender their mobile telephones as an anti-piracy measure before the screening started, making it impossible for them to contact authorities when the medical emergency began.
The requirement to surrender mobile phones at advance screenings is imposed by studios in order to prevent footage from leaking out prior to release. “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” will begin opening in international markets on June 6 while the U.S. release is set for June 20.
Adam B. Vary, a reporter for Buzzfeed News, said in a Tweet, “I was at this. It was awful. Not having access to our phones was bad. That the theater was so under-prepared for this emergency was just awful.”
Buzzfeed’s Kate Aurthur tweeted that AMC did not seem equipped to deal with the emergency. A rep of AMC Guest Services named “Paul” tweeted in response, “Once again my deepest apologies for the poor handling of this. We do have procedures in place for when situations like this occur and I’ll make sure the theater team reviews them and improves on how they address these emergencies.”
Christy Lemire, a host on “What the Flick,” said in a Tweet the man was conscious when he was being taken out of the theater: “My son and I were sitting outside Yogurtland when we saw paramedics wheeling him out of the theater and onto an elevator. He was sitting upright on a stretcher, checking his phone. Looked out of it but conscious, at least.”
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