Cinemark Converts Every Auditorium Into a Drive-In Parking Lot Until Tarantino Apologizes
The nation's third-largest exhibitor has ordered all of its screens emptied, seats removed and replaced with asphalt, and has begun issuing parking permits in place of tickets.
Cinemark has begun converting its auditoriums into outdoor parking lots, with more than two hundred locations across the country now reporting that their screens have been replaced by painted asphalt and numbered parking bays. Chief executive Sean Gamble said the decision was taken to protect the theatrical ecosystem from what he described as a film that will not be shown in theaters.
Crews began work on Monday at the company's flagship complex, where projectors were unbolted, rows of seats were hauled into loading bays and concrete was poured across the old auditorium floors. Employees say the work continues around the clock, with a second shift scheduled to lay yellow lines by the weekend. Patrons who arrive for showtimes are now directed to a parking space and asked to wait in their cars for a film that will never begin.
Gamble said the chain would not consider reinstating its screens until the studio responsible for The Further Mis-Adventures Of Cliff Booth agreed to a theatrical window of the kind the company considers reasonable. "We are not going to hold a seat for a movie that has already decided it does not need one," he said. "Every auditorium will now serve the only audience our industry has left, which is people who want to sit still and look at the sky."
Regional managers have been instructed to hire attendants who will guide cars into their assigned spaces and collect a fee in the form of a popcorn voucher. Several locations have installed a single massive screen on the roof of their multiplex, though staff confirmed it displays only a looping image of a parking ticket.
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