Cinemark’s Box Office PR Fail

Cinemark’s Box Office PR Fail

Cinemark’s Box Office PR Fail

Well, that didn’t take long. I wrote about the Year Ahead in Crisis Comms less than a week ago and already one of the four things I predicted has, sadly, come to pass.

Cinemark USA, the theater chain that owned the movie theater in Aurora, CO, where 12 people were killed and dozens wounded by a gunman last summer, sent invitations to victim’s families inviting “them and a guest” to a remembrance and a movie. The invitations arrived two days after Christmas according to PR Newser and other reports.

I wasn’t able to find the full text of the Cinemark letter to families, but family members responded with a letter, which The Denver Post reprinted.

“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.” -Letter to Cinemark from families of victims

This falls into the “Lack of Compassion” category from my Year Ahead post. The community has been supportive of reopening the theater and it is appropriate to let the families know that the reopening is near, but the language in quotes below reads like it came from the promotions department. This isn’t the first insensitive letter Cinemark has written about the disaster. The CEO wrote a letter to Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan in September about plans to reopen the theater.

“We pledge to reconfigure the space and make the theater better than ever.” –Tim Werner, Cinemark USA CEO (Aurora Sentinel)

The problem with the theater wasn’t that it was a substandard place to watch movies, but that 12 people were murdered while watching a movie there. “Better than ever,” seems like one of those throwaway phrases from a CEO who doesn’t really have his finger on the pulse of the story engulfing his own company.

Cinemark is in a very tough spot. The crisis happened on their property, but it wasn’t caused by the company or its employees. Aurora’s mayor asked the company to reopen the theater. Reopening is the right thing to do. But, how they are communicating is not only amateurish, it’s adding to people’s suffering. Stop it.

The learning point for communicators is this: People impacted the most get to decide when the crisis is over, not the company. Twelve people were killed and 58 wounded in Theater 9 of Cinemark’s Century 16 multiplex in Aurora.

No amount of remodeling or renaming will ever change that.

Bill Salvin