ANNAPOLIS, Md. — County officials still want an apology from Regal Cinemas. The company offered free movie tickets after a camp of children with disabilities was denied a screening at Regal Waugh Chapel & IMAX in Gambrills.

Anne Arundel County Recreation and Parks director Rick Anthony said a customer service manager from Regal Cinemas called him Tuesday after the Mayo Beach Adaptive Camp was turned away from the Waugh Chapel theater last week. The manager said Regal is looking into the issue and offered free tickets for the camp, but there was no apology for the incident.

“She did say she’s offering movie tickets for the entire camp, but I got nothing else formally from her,” Anthony said.

Camp Director Joe Mavor said he was one of the first people to buy tickets for the theater’s Summer Fun Express Movie last week and told theater staff the 140 tickets he purchased were for a camp of children with special needs.

But when the campers arrived, the showing had been oversold and the group was told they couldn’t be accommodated, Mavor said in a report filed with the Recreation and Parks department.

Mavor said he offered to buy tickets to another showing, which would be $12 a ticket instead of the Summer Fun Express Movie special of $1 tickets. That’s when an unidentified theater representative told him it would be a “liability issue” to seat the camp for children with special needs with the general public.

Anthony said the county is still figuring things out, but there are no plans to go back to the theater for any Recreation and Parks camps this summer. He said he’ll need to discuss the free tickets with his staff before accepting them.

The Capital Gazette reached out to Regal Cinemas but only received a response through a message to its company Facebook page.

“At Regal, our goal is to provide the best movie-going experience for all our guests. We have reached out to the organization along with the employees involved regarding this matter,” the company said via Facebook message to a reporter at The Capital Gazette.

“As we look to fully understand the events that took place during the sold-out Summer Movie Express screening, first and foremost, we want to make sure the children are taken care of and are in the process of coordinating a screening for them.”

Regal would not respond further for comment.

© 2019 Capital Gazette
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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