After a man was told he could not bring outside food in to see The Dark Knight, he and his friends became so angry they forcibly stole money from a theater register, police said.

The State College Police Department is using surveillance video to identify three suspects in a strong-armed robbery at 10 Monday night at the Premiere Theatre, 125 Premiere Drive, police said. The amount stolen is estimated to be less than $100, State College Police Cpt. Dana Leonard said.

The three suspects -- two men and one woman -- were stopped by an employee while waiting in line to see The Dark Knight after one of the men showed "obvious signs" of having outside food and drink with him, investigating Detective John Aston said.

When the suspects reacted by using profanity and making a "huge scene," the situation escalated and resulted in the employee denying them entrance to the film, Aston said.

Bringing outside food and drink into Premiere's auditoriums or hallways is a violation of theater rules, theater manager Robert Ricker said.

"That was kind of an instigator for the whole thing," he added.

When the employee walked the suspects over to refund their money, one of the men continued his "verbal attack" on the employee while the other man

reached around the counter and stole an undisclosed amount of money from the cash drawer, Aston said.

The suspects then fled on foot, escaping before police searched the surrounding area with the help of dogs, police said.

Police spent yesterday reviewing surveillance tape of the incident to extract still photos of the suspects, Aston said. Police were working on significant leads into the identity of at least one suspect as of yesterday afternoon, he added.

Though only one of the suspects actually robbed the theater, all three were aware of what was going on and fled the scene, making them culpable, Aston said.

The entire theater is equipped with surveillance cameras, Ricker said.

"This is our first robbery from an outside source," he said. "We had a couple internal theft issues a few years ago."

Common sense can often prevent this type of crime, Ricker said.

"Prevention just boils down to good management, having a quality staff here," he said, adding employees are taught to keep their drawers shut and locked as often as possible.

Despite the theater's mainly college-aged crowd, "generally our customers are very understanding of our policies," he said.