The Fate Of The Furious is a high-octane, rollicking rollercoaster of a film that also features umpteen glorious car chases and sees The Rock and Jason Statham basically breaking out of a prison with their bare fists. Clearly some cinemagoers in Orange County were a little too inspired by the action titans' antics in the film, because a large fight broke out during a screening of The Fate Of The Furious on Sunday, which resulted in numerous arrests and even some people being pepper-sprayed.
The fight unfolded at around 8 p.m. at the Regal Cinemas along Alafaya Trail in the hugely popular Waterford Lakes Town Center. The Orange County Sheriff's Office have confirmed that six people were involved in the fracas, and now charges have been brought against each of them. After the incident was originally reported, around a dozen police cars quickly responded and made their way to the cinema to try and tackle the problem.
However, before they got there, a patron had decided to take matters into his or her own hands, because as the fight quickly escalated this individual--who was not part of the brawl--used pepper spray to try and immediately quash it. Numerous people were exposed to the pepper spray, and later multiple people had to be treated at the scene.
Further details regarding the fight have since started to emerge. Maritza Median was able to recall the entire kerfuffle to the Orlando Sentinel, admitting that one of her children was involved in the melee after originally being confronted. Maritz Medina revealed that she'd travelled to the Regal Cinemas to watch The Fate Of The Furious with her three children, two of whom are 16 and one of whom is 22. Shortly after the movie started, a group of people surrounded her and her offspring, with Maritz Medina admitting that this was because one of her children had been involved in a prior run-in with one of the individuals from the posse. At this point the gang asked one of her sons to go outside for a fight.
Pushing and shoving soon followed, with Maritz Medina later insisting that she stood between the two parties in an attempt to keep it civil. She failed, because an all-out brawl soon began, which resulted in Medina being punched in the lip. In addition, there have even been conflicting rumors over the presence of a gun during the fight. Maritz Medina insists that a gun was present, however Orange County Sheriff's Lieutenant Craig hall has revealed that no such weapon was spotted by either officers or management at the theater. Because of the pepper spray and the melee, the screening of the movie had to be evacuated. Luckily no-one was seriously injured in the incident. The whole thing sounds pretty chaotic.
Incidents like these did nothing to hamper The Fate Of The Furious's box office success over the weekend, as the blockbuster rocketed to a worldwide haul of $532.5 million, meaning that it has now beaten Star Wars: The Force Awakens to record the highest-grossing opening of all time.
