Movie theater accidentally plays Paranormal Activity 4 instead of Madagascar 3

Paranormal Activity 4 is an American found footage supernatural horror film directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman while Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted is a computer animated action adventure comedy film directed by Eric Darnell, Conrad Vernon and Tom McGrath, both films were released in the year of 2012, whereas the former was released in October 19 and the latter releasing on June 8 a few months prior, however, both movies were released in October, which led to this very incident.

In October of 2012, during a scheduled showing of the Ben Stiller– and Chris Rock-voiced animation, viewers were instead shown the newly released horror film Paranormal Activity 4 at Nottingham’s Cineworld. According to Yahoo! Movies UK, parents rushed their children from the theater following a shocking opening scene which features a bloody female corpse being thrown at the camera – a throwback from the series’ first film. One mother stated that everybody (both the children and parents) scrambled for the exits, to which she stared "all you could hear were children crying and screaming."

A spokesperson for the theater said that all customers were offered refunds and complimentary tickets for the gaffe. "We have investigated the incident and can confirm that this was a technical error with the projector and apologize sincerely to the families," a statement read. Moviegoers were also invited to a follow-up screening of Madagascar 3 a half hour after the incident. The statement continued with the fact that the theater takes these matters "very seriously" and are currently working with technicians to ensure this does not occur again.