The film had been playing for more than an hour — Ms. Gordon called it well acted and “very emotional”— when she saw a man approach her aisle and then leave. Ms. Gordon said it seemed to her that he was confused about his seat assignment, but she could not be sure.

Minutes later, she said, a theater employee approached her and told her that she was in the wrong seat. Ms. Gordon took out her phone to show the employee that she was not. Shortly after that, a different employee entered the theater, paused the film and turned on the lights, Ms. Gordon said, demanding to see her ticket and accusing her of being disruptive and rude.

This time, members of the audience began to get angry. Those close to Ms. Gordon defended her, she said, while people farther away called for her to be removed. But she was in the correct seat, and she stayed there.

Then a third employee entered and asked, once more, to see her ticket. She complied.

But after the movie ended, Ms. Gordon, her friends and several strangers from the audience stayed at the theater to speak with a manager. They all got refunds and left the theater, Ms. Gordon said.

But she and the other members of her organization were not happy with the way they had been treated. So they reached out to Alison McCrary, a Catholic nun and a civil rights lawyer in New Orleans. Together, they talked about what “healing and justice looked like” for the women of 504 Queens, Sister Alison said, and what they thought AMC should do to “right this wrong.”