Civil lawsuits against the company that owns the Century Aurora movie theater have narrowed to a question of whether the theater should have been better prepared for a violent attack like the July 20 fatal shootings.

In several recent court filings in the 10 federal lawsuits against Cinemark USA over the theater shootings, the theater company argues that it cannot be expected to have anticipated the attack.

“[T]he mass murderous assault committed by James Holmes was legally unforeseeable,” the company argues in one filing.

But victims of the shooting say the company had ample warning from previous incidents that the theater needed better security. For instance, a filing this week in a lawsuit by wounded victim Munirih Gravelly notes that police received more than 100 emergency calls from the theater in the four months prior to the shooting.

Gravelly’s lawsuit, along with the others, argues that liability law does not require the theater to have failed to foresee the specific attack but a lower “unreasonable failure to exercise reasonable care to protect against dangers of which it actually knew or should have known.”

The theater, Gravelly’s filing states, “knew or should have known that a crime may occur due to dangers at or near the premises during crowded periods.”

Holmes is accused of killing 12 people and wounding 58 more by gunfire during a midnight showing of a Batman film on July 20 at what was then called the Century Aurora 16 theater.

Following the shooting, several wounded survivors and family members of those killed filed lawsuits against Cinemark, alleging that lax security enabled the attack. In January, a magistrate judge recommended that wrongful death claims against the theater in seven lawsuits be dismissed but that the cases be allowed to go forward under the Colorado Premises Liability Act, the same section of law that covers slip-and-fall lawsuits.

Cinemark has since filed an objection to the magistrate’s recommendation, reasserting that they should not be expected to have foreseen the attack. A district court judge has yet to decide whether to adopt the recommendation.

In the three most recently filed suits, the company has filed motions to dismiss the cases.

John Ingold: 303-954-1068, jingold@denverpost.com or twitter.com/john_ingold