Why Movie Theaters Need a Serious Security Strategy in 2025

Movie theater owners have known about the dangers of active shooters at the movies for almost a decade, ever since 12 were killed in 2012 at a midnight screening in Aurora Colorado, becoming one of the most well-known mass shootings of the last 20 years.

Active shooters, however, are not the only threat faced by movie theaters. Plenty of other illegal activities can pose a significant threat to your customers and to your employees as well.

Three key risks faced by movie theaters

Human trafficking abductions

Consider the average movie theater on a weekend evening. It’s dark inside and outside. There are small groups of teens and tweens there, watching films and hanging out with friends. Some kids might be hanging out by themselves outside waiting for a parent to pick them up, or for a friend to get dropped off. Kids might be alone in the theater itself, in the bathroom areas or in the halls as well. Late at night, in a theater with only one or two employees working, it’s unsurprising that human traffickers would take advantage of a theater to abduct a child.

What can movie theaters do to prevent abductions? It’s unrealistic to expect your employees — many of whom are likely teens themselves — to confront traffickers. Instead, partner with law enforcement and nonprofit organizations that combat human trafficking to educate parents and keep your customers and workers safe. You should also invest in cameras and a security force that patrols your site.

Gang violence and vandalism

Graffiti, or tagging, is usually your first indicator of gang violence, which brings with it drugs, human trafficking and other undesirable activity. Gangs get interested in claiming movie theaters for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s a desirable location for drug sales, sometimes it’s territorial, and sometimes it’s even political — if a movie that speaks to gang life is coming out, a gang may try to claim a theater the film in which the film is being shown. Regardless of why a gang wants your theater, that’s not something you want — two gangs in the same building is never a good thing.

The first thing you can do to discourage gang activity is to get rid of tagging. Paint over graffiti in less than 24 hours. Once it’s established that your theater is part of one gang’s territory, other gangs will want to retaliate. You may also want to invite the police to be a presence in your theater, and be sure you have teams of employees working at all times rather than one or two. You should also invest in cameras, good lighting, and a hidden scanning system able to detect hidden firearms.

Internal theft

Movie theaters usually employ teens, and any time you have a young workforce, internal theft can be a problem. To discourage bad choices on the part of your employees, make sure you’ve got a large team on duty, and cameras trained on the registers. You should also be engaging in best practices when it comes to handling cash: not keeping much money in the till, balancing registers, and making sure you’re doing background checks/reference checks on all employees, no matter how young they are.

Don’t let employees wait on their friends who come to the movies. An employee may feel peer pressured or obligated to give friends and family free concessions or tickets. And keep an eye on the trash cans so no one can slip money in a trash bag when they empty the trash cans. Also, encourage anonymous reporting, so your workers feel comfortable reporting troublemakers.

Why is it important for movie theaters to consider security?

The probability of gangs claiming your theater, or human traffickers operating in your theater might be low, but consider how bad it will be for your theater if either of those things happened.

A single abduction or shooting can bankrupt a theater — the theater in Aurora where the 2012 shooting happened never recovered and had to close.

That’s why proactive risk management is essential. With Circadian Risk’s platform, theater owners can identify, assess, and mitigate threats before they become headlines. Our software helps you track vulnerabilities, document security measures, and prepare your team with a comprehensive, data-driven risk management strategy.

Don’t wait for a crisis to evaluate your security. With Circadian Risk, you’ll have the insight you need to protect your customers, your employees, and your business.

You can assess hundreds of sites every year without hiring consultants. Don’t believe us?

Talk to an expert today to find out how.

About the Author

Daniel Young

Founder & Chief Innovation Officer

Daniel has been a security and risk advisor for more than 10 years, and is passionate about helping companies to better understand their risks to undesirable events on a daily basis. Dan previously served as the Regional Bioterrorism Coordinator for District 1 in Michigan, where he was instrumental in preparing communities for catastrophic incidents. He has also acted as the Private Security Liaison for the City of Lansing’s Critical Infrastructure Team, which identified and documented deficiencies in the city’s critical infrastructure.

He is a Co-Founder of the CSO Risk Council, a think tank of seasoned security professionals and thought leaders with extensive experience in managing the physical security and risks of large enterprises consisting of multiple sites and whose mission is to create a better process to develop and share innovative solutions and pertinent information with organizations to improve safety and security risk by providing a forum to discuss best practices and recommendations for specific risk scenarios and to network with other enterprise security professionals.