New North Philly Movie Theater Reaches Franklin Mills Theater Status In Mere Two Days

Monday’s opening of the new Pearl Theatre at the Avenue North complex in North Philly near Temple was hailed as the first step in a transition of North Philly into a nicer, happier place with gooey gooey gumdrops and residents whose shit smells like rainbows.

Well, it only two days, but North Philly’s new movie theater has already had a shooting. Philly isn’t really a city for much movie theater mayhem — mostly because there aren’t many movie theaters — but the Pearl apparently is looking to change that.

The shooting, actually, may haven’t even been related to the theater. A 16-year-old boy was shot near the theater complex and taken to Hahnemann in critical condition around 7:30. But the theater was evacuated, which led to even more mayhem afterward. And police aren’t even sure who made the call to evacuate the theater, Will Bunch and David Gambacorta of the Daily News write:

As a result of the shooting, about 100 paying customers were evacuated from the theater. Detectives were unsure last night who had decided to evacuate the theater, but they confirmed that it had led to chaos, with numerous fistfights breaking out. “Basically, they all went crazy,” said one detective. “We don’t really know why, either.”

Indeed, when a reporter arrived minutes after the shooting, groups of youths were still running in every direction, and police had cuffed and pinned two men against a car about 100 feet from the theater. “I didn’t hit you,” an officer yelled at one of the handcuffed men. Later, police said that none of at least four handcuffed people outside the movies was linked to the shooting.

If you’re keeping score at home, that’s: Shooting near movie theater, movie theater evacuated, patrons decide to beat each other up since they have nothing else to do.

However, a member of the anti-violence group Men United for a Better Philadelphia said that, well, this is why North Philly can’t have nice things:

Rich Ford, of Men United for a Better Philadelphia, watched hordes of adolescents yell and shove one another outside the complex, and then questioned the wisdom of putting a theater in North Philly.

“This is not Center City or Manayunk,” he said. “It’s the heart of North Philadelphia. This place is going to draw a multitude of young kids from all over, and these kinds of events will probably be ongoing at this location.”

It’s good to see our anti-violence group members are so committed to finding things for kids to do other than violence. “A movie theater? Hell, don’t put one of those up here!” Sigh.

Violence erupts outside theater [Daily News]
Photo via Philebrity
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