They went to see a movie, but the bear on the roof became the biggest star

A black bear became an internet sensation this week after video showed it meandering atop a theater building and staring down at tourists in downtown Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

Nashville NBC-TV affiliate WSMV said one of its workers happened to see and shoot video of the bear atop Ripley's Believe It or Not! Moving Theater on Sunday. A crowd gathers on the street to look up at the bear. The video has been viewed over 99,000 times on Facebook.

The bear, however, was already so familiar to downtown merchants workers that it has been given a name: Parker the Bear, CBS-TV affiliate WFMY reported.

“We’ve seen him do some pretty amazing things," Leigh Reinhardt, who works at the nearby Park View Inn, told WFMY. "He’s pretty mischievous."

The video drew a lot of reaction on social media, from people who felt sorry for the bear to others who joked about it.

"Poor Bear!" Anne Smith posted on Facebook. "Crazy humans have taken their natural habitat and disobeyed the laws of not feeding them."

"Poor thing's probably scared to death," posted Pam Cathey Buck.

Others reacted more lightheartedly.

"He was hoping too watch the (Grizzly) Adams movie and have a cold soda it's hot outside," Janet Hernandez posted.

Gatlinburg has been the scene of other bear-human encounters in recent months.

In June, a tourist maintained her composure enough to get video of a bear dashing away from her and across a street in Gatlinburg's downtown.

Tourists are seen running for safety into a store across the street from the woman as the bear darted toward them.

Also in June, a hungry bear crawled through a mom's car window and "gently moved" her children's car seats around to gobble up some "old food," the woman posted on Facebook. The woman said she returned to find the bear looking out from her Honda Odyssey van in Gatlinburg.