A film about warring gangs has been pulled from nearly 100 cinemas across the UK after a mass brawl involving teenagers armed with machetes in Birmingham on Saturday night.
Blue Story, which depicts violent street rivalries in south London, was removed from all 91 Vue Cinemas on Sunday following the riot.
Five teenagers, including a 13-year-old girl, were arrested and seven police officers suffered facial injuries following what the West Midlands force described as a “major outbreak of trouble” involving up to 100 young people.
Footage posted on social media showed officers drawing Tasers to try to get the brawl under control as other cinemagoers screamed and ran, including families with young children who were there to watch Frozen II.
Police later recovered two machetes and a knife from the Star City leisure complex, in the Nechells area of Birmingham. One witness described the brawl as “one of the scariest moments of her life”.
West Midlands police said they were trying to establish what sparked the violence, which started shortly after 5.30pm. A spokesman said the force were aware of the film Blue Story being shown but unable to confirm whether the riot started in a screening.
Vue Cinemas, which runs the venue where the brawl erupted, said on Sunday: “We can confirm a decision was made to remove the film. The safety and welfare of our customers and staff is always our first priority.”
A voice message on Vue’s customer service helpline states: “We regret that we will no longer be screening the film Blue Story at any of our venues.” Vue is the third-biggest cinema chain in Britain, behind Cineworld and Odeon, with 850 screens in the UK and Ireland.
Blue Story, which was released on Friday, is rated 15 for very strong language, strong violence, threat, sex, and drug misuse.
In a statement, the film’s director Andrew Onwubolu, better known as Rapman, said Blue Story was a movie “about love not violence” and that he hoped the blame for the disorder was “placed with the individuals and not an indictment of the film itself”.
He added: “Sending love to all those involved in yesterday’s violence at Star City in Birmingham. It’s truly unfortunate that a small group of people can ruin things for everybody. I pray that we can all learn to live with love and treat each other with tolerance and respect.”
Vue’s decision to pull the film has provoked an outcry on Twitter, where the film was the third most talked about topic on the social media platform on Sunday afternoon. “From what I can see, Vue Cinema’s decision to ban Blue Story from all of their cinemas is at best disproportionate and at worst blatant racism,” said one user called Jonathan.
Odeon cinemas said it was reviewing its position. A spokeswoman said: “We are aware of reports of violence at cinemas which have been linked to the film Blue Story. The safety of our guests and colleagues is our number one priority. We have a number of security measures in place for this film, and are currently reviewing these along with our programming, in order to continue to put the safety of our guests first.”
Onwubolu’s social media page was still promoting Blue Story on Sunday, posting several tweets urging people to go see it before the opening box office weekend closes at midnight.
During the violence on Saturday, a 13-year-old girl, a girl and boy, both aged 14, and a 19-year-old man were arrested for assaulting police. Another 14-year-old boy was held on suspicion of obstructing police.
Supt Ian Green, from Birmingham police, said: “This was a major outbreak of trouble which left families who were just trying to enjoy a night out at the cinema understandably frightened.”
Rachael Allison, who witnessed the brawl, told PA Media: “The police told everyone to leave the cinema as they held Taser guns in their hands and started to bring in guard dogs.
“I spoke to a policeman who told me it is unclear whether the kids had weapons and also stated when kids fight they bring their group of friends.” Another witness saw a young boy crying on the floor with his mother as young people fought.
Choleigh McGuire, who was queueing with her daughter for a screening of Frozen II, described the incident as “one of the scariest moments of [her] life”.
She said: “Armed police come, Tasers come, all of the people that were fighting ran off into the cinema, hiding. I am shaking.”
Green said further arrests would be made and urged anyone with footage to contact police.
He added: “We’ve had a great response from the public who have been very supportive of our officers. We understand that families with young children will have been left upset by what they saw last night, but we urge people to appreciate that our aim last night was to protect the public and restore order, and that’s what we achieved.
“We’re aware of a number of images and videos circulating on social media which appear to show those involved in last night’s violence. We are assessing those and have already had a number of phone calls from members of the public giving us the names of people they believe were involved last night.”
