AUGUSTA — Some moviegoers heading into the Regal Cinema in Augusta on Thursday afternoon were neither surprised nor put out when they heard the theater chain has started checking patrons’ bags in response to recent shootings in several theaters around the country.
“It’s fine with me,” said Jackie Nadeau of Augusta. “They should have done that a long time ago. I’m never against too much security.”
But others wondered how effective such searches would be against a potential assailant who is determined to bring a weapon into a crowded theater.
Regal, the largest theater chain in the country with roughly 570 theaters including two in Maine, recently announced that it is searching the bags of people entering its theaters nationwide. The policy is designed to improve safety following several high profile incidents at movie theaters nationally, including one in a Nashville movie theater earlier this month, Regal Entertainment Group, based in Knoxville, Tennessee, said in a statement on its website.
“To ensure the safety of our guests and employees, backpacks and bags of any kind are subject to inspection prior to admission,” officials wrote in the statement. “We acknowledge that this procedure can cause some inconvenience and that it is not without flaws, but hope these are minor in comparison to increased safety.”
In Portland, Patriot Cinemas, which runs the Nickelodeon theater in downtown Portland, is evaluating security procedures and plans to hold a meeting with the Nickelodeon managers next week, said David Kiolbasa, Patriot Cinemas vice president. The theater has been robbed at gunpoint three times this year.
But the Nickelodeon, Kiolbasa said, differs from the company’s other locations in Massachusetts, where most patrons drive and park. In Portland, he said, customers are much more likely to carry backpacks.
While he was not specific about what the company may implement, Kiolbasa said there are limitations to what he would be comfortable asking employees to do in the name of security.
“I’m not going to ask a 16-year-old high school kid to inspect the bag of someone who may or may not be carrying a weapon,” Kiolbasa said.
A spokesman for Cinemagic, another theater operator with locations in Westbrook, Saco and South Portland, as well as five other locations in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, did not address the issue of mandatory searches.
“Cinemagic has had a longstanding policy to leave all backpacks or large bags at home or in their locked vehicles as we take the safety and the security of our patrons very seriously,” said Cinemagic spokesman Zachary Adams, in a prepared statement.
Dave Wallace, who manages the Regal Cinema in Augusta, said he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media, but he confirmed that his facility was complying with the new company directive. Still, several women leaving the theater Thursday afternoon said their purses hadn’t been searched.
The policy shift comes after three high-profile attacks at theaters. The most recent was on Aug. 5 in the Nashville suburb of Antioch, Tennessee by a man with a history of mental illness who entered a screening of “Mad Max: Fury Road” armed with a pellet gun, a hatchet and pepper spray and attacked guests. The attacker, Vincente David Montano, 29, was shot to death by a SWAT unit, but not before one man was cut on the shoulder, evidently by the ax Montano carried.
Two weeks earlier, a man shot and killed two people and wounded nine others before fatally shooting himself during a screening of the movie “Trainwreck” at a theater in Lafayette, Louisiana.
The deadliest theater attack was by James Holmes, who was sentenced Aug. 7 to life in prison for killing 12 and injuring 70 theatergoers three years ago at a midnight premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises” at a Colorado theater.
Regal is not the only chain to beef up security in response to the attacks. National Amusements Inc.’s Showcase chain, which runs about 30 theaters in the Northeastern U.S., said on its website that it has banned backpacks and packages and reserves the right to search purses and bags. It says the policy, which began Aug. 7, will be in place “for the time being.”
An AMC Theatres spokesman declined to comment on security measures, and other chains, including Cinemark and Carmike, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Patrons attending a Thursday matinee at the Marketplace Drive theater – Regal’s other Maine theater is in Brunswick – wondered how much of a difference the searches will make. Mary Dionne of Sidney said she understood the company’s effort to make people feel safe, but wondered whether the practice actually would enhance security.
“I’m not quite sure how I feel about it,” she said. “It seems if someone really wanted to take something in, I guess they would find some other way to do it.”
Ted Weymouth of Monmouth echoed Dionne’s concern. A handgun, Weymouth said, can be hidden in any number of areas outside of a bag, such as under a pant leg or in a waistband.
“They can check bags and stuff, but you can have a concealed handgun on you,” Weymouth said. “You don’t need a bag. Nothing is secure anymore.”
Still, Weymouth said, she supports any steps to improve safety. She said since the Colorado shooting she has felt some sense of unease whenever she watches a movie at a theater.
“I’m always looking around when I get in there,” Weymouth said. “It’s sad it has to be that way, but you have to watch out for yourself.”
Portland Press Herald Staff Writer Matt Byrne and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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