Most Americans are able to compartmentalize or suspend our disbelief of a fictional story and be able to identify that it’s “just a movie.”
Unfortunately, we’ve reached a level in society where there’s this looming suspicion that people just can’t separate the reality from fiction, which means the state of paranoia over the new “Joker” movie that hit theaters over the weekend was at an all-time high in cinematic history considering the content.
And there were two different overreactions to false alarms, at “Joker” screenings in Los Angeles on Sunday.
It came as pretty much a shock to everybody in Hollywood that the “Joker” would open to $93.5 million in North America and an unprecedented $248 million worldwide for a rated-R movie of this caliber.
Warner Bros. and DC took a risk; they rolled the dice on making a movie with this subject matter but once Martin Scorsese came on to produce the film it was an open-and-shut case.
Todd Phillips directs Joaquin Phoenix in the titular role with the film essentially depicting a desperate delusional outcast from society who becomes a violent undertaker of the city.
Many people were concerned about how this movie would translate to audiences and whether there would be mentally ill individuals who take it far too seriously and act out in theaters over the weekend in violent ways.
After all, it happened in Aurora, Colorado in 2012 during “The Dark Knight Rises” midnight showing on Thursday of that week where a man named James Holmes stormed into an audience killing 12 people and injuring many more on that fateful evening.
When Holmes was arrested, he claimed to be the Joker.
That’s why police departments across the country were on high alert over the weekend because of a similar situation being a plausible possibility.
And just when you thought the coast was clear, there were two incidents that occurred in Los Angeles on Sunday night that demonstrated the state of paranoia surrounding the film.
An audience at a screening in Long Beach, California self-evacuated from the screening of “Joker” because of a “suspicious subject inside.” This was according to a Long Beach Police spokeswoman.
On Twitter, the Long Beach Police Department wrote, “The suspect was detained and was not found in possession of any weapons, however he was taken into custody for an unrelated outstanding warrant.”
Ironically, that unknown man had an outstanding warrant against him and was taken into custody.
Close call.
Within an hour of this incident and across town something went down at the ArcLight cinemas in Sherman Oaks.
Apparently what sounded like a gunshot occurred and people in the lobby ran out of the theater rather than stick around for what could’ve potentially been another mass shooting.
This one was a little more harrowing because people ran far from the chaos as fast as they could.
I was just at Sherman Oaks ArcLight. I did not hear anything in the bar area. Saw people run so I ran. I’m out on way home.
— Daniel Kunka (@unikunka) October 7, 2019
But as it turned out, it was a popped balloon. And it was called back to the Sherman Oaks PD as a “Code 4” but it wasn’t readily received in time.
15300 ventura Sherman Oaks Galleria – shooting reported at the arclight movie theatre – #vannuys. now multiple calls coming in
— NoHo Scanner (@NohoScanner) October 7, 2019
MULTIPLE CALLS STILL COMING IN
— NoHo Scanner (@NohoScanner) October 7, 2019
CODE 4- CHILD POPPED A BALLOON!
— NoHo Scanner (@NohoScanner) October 7, 2019
This article isn’t an attempt to scare anybody out of seeing the film but it just goes to show you the state of extreme paranoia when the popping of a balloon sparked a mass panic in a big city.