Except it really could, depending on how strong the IR is.Our eyes can be fried by IR just as well as any visible wavelength. The difference is that we usually encounter IR along with daylight, so our eyes are already adjusted to that and we aren't in much danger. But a movie theater needs to be dark for persistence-of-vision to work properly, so our pupils are dilated. If the room is flooded with IR light, strong enough to blot out a video camera, it will certainly be strong enough to damage the eyes of everyone there.I've done work with motion-tracking of IR-lit targets, and maintaining a healthy diet of IR exposure in dimly-lit rooms is a major concern. If your IR lamp is too bright (which we can't see directly, as IR is invisible to us) and you spend too much time with it, you will feel the effects within a few minutes and can be temporarily blinded. Prolonged exposure can cause serious long-term damage.