BEVERLY HILLS—On January 10, multiple reports indicate that a disturbance occurred at Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverly Cinema, located at 7165 Beverly Boulevard. A double feature was showing. 1957, film, Wild Strawberries, directed by Ingmar Bergman, and the 1999 film, “The Straight Story,” directed by David Lynch, were interrupted by a man on his cell phone in the audience.
The patron did not exit the theater quietly. He became agitated and argumentative, forcing the manager to call the police and have the agitator removed from the premises. The entire affair was over momentarily, but dozens of moviegoers captured video footage of the debacle on their cell phones.
The double feature brought in a huge crowd. The manager earned rave reviews for his handling of the incident from film directors Josh Safdie, filmmakers and screenwriters Ronnie Bronstein, and actor Joe Russo, who were in attendance and witnessed the manager’s quick response.
The cell phone videos posted on X reached over 700,000 views in less than a day. One commenter, Scott Leger, posted, “My favorite part is always when they say, ‘don’t be like the beloved regular who pulled out his phone yesterday during the trailers, and was banned for life.”
Another commenter praised the work of the policeman.
“That policeman did an excellent job of not letting anything escalate. Thank God there are still some cops that understand what we really need from them.”
The name of the man escorted out by police has not been released. Canyon News reached out to the Beverly Hills Police Department for more information and spoke to a Watch Commander by the name of Diamond, who referred me to an LAPD Watch Commander for the Wilshire Division. There was no response from the Wilshire Division in time for print.
