New trend on TikTok? Young people run riot in cinemas to watch the same movie over and over again

Police operations nationwide Young people riot in cinemas watching the same movie. Is there a TikTok trend behind it?

The cinema is destroyed, the film is stopped, the police are massive: in many cinemas in Germany and other countries there have been riots in the past few days during the showing there of “Creed III”, the ninth film in the saga about the boxer “Rocky”. In the TikTok network, videos of disruptive actions are getting a lot of attention. According to the Essen Police, they have indications of a challenge. Actors are pushing each other to force cinema screenings to be canceled with their actions thus gaining attention on TikTok. But experts have not yet identified a long-term trend.

In Essen, Hamburg and Bremen, the police were working at weekends with strong forces because the cinema workers could no longer control the situation. There were smaller operations in many other cities or cinema operators were able to take control of the situation themselves. “The guests got up, climbed onto the benches and threw snacks around the room,” a police spokesman in Essen said. About 40 people were going to riot when the cinema stopped showing long ago. In Hamburg, the police are talking about 60 hooligans. The officers were unable to arrest anyone.

TikTok videos of the riots: “This is amazing”

And it’s not just the big cities: “Cinema 1 was like a battlefield filled with rubbish, splattered popcorn and spilled drinks. I’d never seen anything like it before,” says Reinhard Behrens of the Tesselpark cinema in Cleves-on-Lower Rhine. In some French cities, police reported scenes of mass unrest and riots during the screening of “Creed III – Rocky’s Legacy”.

Social media experts from the Essen Police found evidence of a challenge on social networks. The authority wrote: “Some people display such antisocial behavior that it should lead to a film being cancelled.” A lot of videos have been popping up on TikTok in particular. “This is amazing,” said a spokesperson.

Other experts remain cautious. For a typical challenge, the topic lacks a typical hashtag and voice, says Markus Bosch, a scientist at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. “Without them, a topic on TikTok wouldn’t go viral.”

Expert: The topic could escalate

Robert de Lubommers-Tretter from the State Information Agency of North Rhine-Westphalia also considers network distribution to be very low. However, the video portal mechanism could lead to a trend, he says. In the comments on the clips from the movie theaters, there are a surprising number of racist statements that have drawn objections from other users. “This ensures engagement and therefore traffic and puts the topic on more people’s viewing screens.”

Because of this importance, the topic can continue to escalate. “Many users want to get as many views as possible, because then you are someone. And in order to get a lot of views, you can take up an already prominent topic, but you need to go a little further than others. In any case, explains a media expert. There are some ingredients in cinema riot that could favor an upcoming trend.” Destruction, rebellion against adults, testing risks and limits — there’s a lot that can appeal to teens.”

Cinemas take “Creed 3” out of the program

Cinema operators sincerely hope that such a chain reaction will not happen. As an initial response, the cinema chain Cineplex deployed security forces in front of the cinemas and searched bags. Managing director Kim Ludolf Koch told WDR that brass knuckles, knives and other smaller weapons have already appeared.

Andreas Simon, who runs several houses in Saarland, took “Creed 3” out of the program as a precaution. There were accidents during several screenings, he and his team had to interrupt the film again and again, and then the halls sounded “like one pig,” he told Radio Saarland. So he decided to pull the emergency brake for himself and his staff. “I don’t do it myself anymore.”

BW / Mark Herwig DPA