CONCORD — The recent showing of a trailer for an R-rated dark comedy to moviegoers awaiting the start of the children’s film “Finding Dory” caused enough of a ruckus for the theater company to issue an apology.

Moviegoers at the Brenden Concord 14 received a surprise earlier this month with the preview of “Sausage Party,” an R-rated animated film centered around the adventures of some cartoon characters who are food items in a grocery store who soon realize their fate is to be eaten.

The “Sausage Party” preview carried dark themes, and Brenden Theatre officials acknowledged it was inappropriate for younger audiences of “Finding Dory,” which is rated PG.

The mistake occurred at a showing earlier this month at the Concord theater on Willow Pass Road, though movie officials did not give an exact date.

Walter Eichinger, Brenden’s vice president of operations said it was a mistake that was caught quickly.

“Playing that trailer was a one-time honest mistake by a theater manager moving screens around in effort to accommodate several large last-minute groups wanting to see ‘Dory,'” Eichinger said in a written statement. “The wrong movie was started by mistake.”

In the statement, Eichinger insisted the same thing won’t happen again.

“It was caught soon, but not until the trailer played,” he said. “We regret it, apologize for it, and we are not happy that it happened. We fully realize this trailer is not appropriate for ‘Dory’ and we would never schedule something like that. “The trailer for ‘Sausage Party’ is not and never has been scheduled with ‘Dory.”

“Finding Dory,” the sequel to “Finding Nemo,” that tells the tale about a fish finding its way home, debuted across the United States and Canada on June 17 and pulled in a record $136.2 million during its first weekend. “Sausage Party” is scheduled to be released into theatres Aug. 12.

Contact Rick Hurd at 925-945-4789 and follow him at Twitter.com/3rdERH