JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- With the images of people fleeing a Colorado theater in terror still fresh on movie-goers minds, Guy Seaton and his two friends came to the Tinseltown theater for a Friday evening showing of "The Dark Knight Rises."
It was clear the group was still struggling to wrap their heads around the Aurora movie theater massacre.
"I was pretty terrified at the fact that that sort of thing could happen," Seaton said.
"It's out of your control completely. It's not something that you can ever see coming and it's not something you can really fully prepare for," said Joshua Stricklin.
As the night progressed, the parking lot filled. It became clear Batman fans, like Kim Hysmith who showed up in Catwoman cat ears, weren't going to let anything keep them from seeing a movie they've been waiting a long time to see.
"I really think that when you play into something like that, like you boycott a movie because a tragedy, you're letting the people that do that win," Hysmith said.
Security has been stepped up at movie theaters across the country.
In New York City, the police commissioner ordered two officers outside of every showing of Batman.
"We're doing it to address the potential of a copy cat event and to reassure movie-goers, particularly parents," said NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
Back in Jacksonville, one police car sat outside of the Cinemark theater on the Southside as movie-goers confidently lined up tickets in hand. Everyone hopeful nothing like this will ever happen again.
