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After the violence that erupted in Westwood on March 9, the night that “New Jack City” opened, Mann Theaters apparently wasn’t taking any chances with “The Five Heartbeats,” another film created by and starring African Americans. The movie opened at its Regent Theater in Westwood last weekend.

According to Katharine Macdonald, a spokeswoman for Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who represents the Westwood district, Mann officials took three steps before the film opened: the chain gave Los Angeles police “sufficient prior notice of the movie’s opening so they could patrol the area,” hired extra private security and set the last show for 8 p.m. over the weekend.

Macdonald said there were no reports of problems.

The elimination of late shows in Westwood was a departure for Mann, since the same movie was playing at other Mann theaters in Hollywood, Culver City and Santa Monica at 10 p.m.

By mid-week, ads showed Mann had added a 10:15 p.m. showing at the Regent. A Mann representative did not answer a Times reporter’s question about the precautions, and subsequent phone calls were not returned.

The violence at the opening of “New Jack City” occurred after hundreds of people were turned away from the Mann Westwood Fourplex, after waiting in line, some for as long as two hours, to buy tickets. The incident involved hundreds of youths who rampaged through the Westwood shopping district, throwing beer cans, vandalizing cars and tearing branches off trees to smash store windows.

After the incident focused attention on “New Jack City,” the story of a drug lord’s fall from power, the film’s producers pointed out that the people who caused the trouble had not even seen the film.

Meanwhile, “The Five Heartbeats,” starring Robert Townsend, who also directed and co-wrote the script, is about a ‘60s rhythm and blues group.