I am going to my first midnight showing of a Star Wars movie, and was wondering how early I should show up before midnight. the theater I'm going to is a popular one, but not mega-popular, so it's probably a middle-tier theater, capacity of 500 people. There are some SW nuts camped out there right now. I am jumping in between being there 2 to 4 hours early. Is that enough? I don't want to be sitting in front. I would prefer being in the back row, but so long as I have an aisle seat, preferably on the lefthand and righthand sides, I'll be ok. But, how early are you guys showing up?

And I do have my ticket already, just want to know about lining up to get in the theater.

im in line right now way to double post

I'm 4.

Man, you guys are in line now?? I don't know if I can handle going there 24 hours before. I'd rather be "late" and get a mediocre seat. I guess I'll go about 4, 5 hours before. Are you guys taking time off? Don't work? or are you students, etc. etc??

new funniest post ever. sarcasm yeah!

Camping is boring. If I have tickets i'm not gonna worry about getting in. I know I can get a good seat. The theatre I go to is friggen huge. I'm not gonna sleep on concrete, not matter how much I love star wars. Screw that.

I'm going to show up an hour or two before.

No matter how early I go, I plan to bring my CD player, and a copy of "Shatterpoint." But I don't know what music I'll be listening to. At one point, I thought of bringing a SW Cd, but then thought, Nah, i'll be hearing plenty of SW music during the movie.

If you have a ticket aren't you guaranteed to get in?

No your not "guaranteed" crap. Just about every theater oversells their number of tickets, that way if some people don't show up, they will make more money. Me and a buddy are going 4 hours early. It's the last one and face it, you won't have anything else better to do on a wednesday.

Yeah it's not like I need to be studying for finals....

Oh wait. I actually have finals the next morning (I'm going to a midnight showing)--that should be really fun.

Yea I have a final the next day too, but luckily for me it's not until 7pm.

That would be nice... Mine's at 7:15 AM, I think. It's one of my harder classes too, so I think I'm showing my alligence to Star Wars by risking a bad finals grade.

Yeah 4 hours early will usually do it, unless you live in a huge ass city. I'm bringing along my portable DVD player to keep my busy through the wait.

i don't know how many our theater holds, but there is usually a legion of about 20-30 hardcore kids there, but the 10 bags of doritos and 50 chocolate bars they brought for snacking must have rotted their brains, cuz they always go for the worst seats (like row 5 of 60) and then decide to move later & get stuck in even worse seats (very front row, aka the broken neck seats & blurry screen seats)

me & my friends go right for the very back, dead center. that way we have the best possible seats and no dipshits behind us kicking seats or putting their feet up. it works for every movie we've lined up for too, LOTR, matrix, SW.

but as for your question, we're going at like 7 and we'll probably be 40-50th in line. we'll still get good seats though, cuz we just force our way through the crowd as soon as they let us in while everyone stands around deciding where they wanna sit. the only thing that sucks is being in that line, we don't be able to drink, but we still may sneak some booze in once the movie starts.

Ain't online booking great? Seriously while i would like to sample the buzz around Sith standing around for days on end ain't my idea of fun kid. More like....suicide.

The theater I am going to has reserved seating, so I know where I will be sitting. In theory, no waiting in line (Except the concession or restroom line). Ask me on May 19 if it worked that way in practice as well.

im a huuuuge star wars fan.. and im talking.. its all i think about when im at home (and not working)

yet i still am not see geeky to get to the cinema 4 hours early for the film ^_^

and those people who camp out for days.... are just ... lifeless bums!

I'll be waiting in line 12 hours before. At my theater for AOTC, people were waiting in line at 3pm and tickets sold out by 7pm. So I'm thinking that Ep III is going to be WAY bigger and I'm nervous that I won't get GOOD seats and seats together with my brother and sister.

Theaters in Singapores are all the reserved - seats types, n I have booked mine for the 18th May 8.10pm show ( Singapore time ).

So,no problem for me.......

In my area I'll be lucky if anyone else even shows up for the midnight show. My guess is there will be no more than 20 - 30 people there. I'll still be showing up at least an hour early just to soak it up. one. last. time.

By the way guys, I just found out expensive Gold Class seats ( posh restaurant - like screening rooms ) for Ep3 opening day are already sold out last week in my country, and that has never happened before in Singapore.

My point is , EP3 rules !!!!!!!

Ditto.

I booked my ticket online, and they still have midnight tickets available. I've half a feeling the cinema will be almost completely empty.

ArcLight Cinemas: reserved seating. It's a beautiful thing. I expect to show up for that midnight screening at about, oh I don't know... 11:59.

If I did that, I would probably mix up the times, and end up having a theatre starting the movie before the one I was sitting in ended

usually no trouble w/ seats in my area.
maybe an hour and change ahead just in case.

the only thing that rubs my rubarb the wrong way is when someone stands up at the end and declares to the whole theater their opinion of the movie.

i.e. "that sucked!"

heartbeat away from ramming my fist down some guys throat for that after TPM.


edit: maybe it's just opinions different from mine i don't agree with.

Wow, I've never had to deal with that. I would find that extremely replusive if someone actually did that in the same theatre as me...

That shouldn't be a problem with ROTS, though

Um... it's called a lightsaber

I remember after seeing both TPM at the midnight showing, I wanted to tell everyone that it was bad still waiting for the next show... but of course you cant do that, and I was still trying to convince myself I liked it. I mean, the end is that badass lazersword fight, er.. lightsaber... fuck me, im a nub

Apparently my definition of a good seat is quite different than that of most people: I consider the perfect seat to be up close (4th or 5th row), and exactly centered L-R. The screen fills my view without any neck strain, and I'm closer to the front speakers and subs.

I've tried sitting farther back and felt like I watched the movie on a TV. It was small, not nearly as loud, and not as fun! FWIW, no one has ever been a pest behind me.. perhaps the people who sit in the front are more civilized? If they were messing around I'd turn around and ask them to stop.. bet they would too; most people aren't trying to be annoying (they were probably just getting into the movie!)

So, I'll show up a couple hours early and probably be stuck behind a huge line, fretting and doubting whether I'll be in the front row, and still be the first person to venture into that dreaded front section.

shit man, you are lucky you weren't in the cinema where i saw X2. we had captain obvious in front of us (thats Wolverine, he has claws that come out of his hands, you'll see!), the thug beside us (he asked us if the seats were saved and they were. he was then like, well fuck you, they ain't anymore). i almost got in a fight with him over that. then behind us was 8 asian & black girls who giggled through the entire movie and had great comments like "c'mon you hot piece of ass, use your powers!!!!!". i finally got fed up and turned around & said "how about using the power of shutting your fucking mouth bitch?". my friends were convinced that i was gonna be jumped when the movie was over.


the reason i suggest people to show up early is because if its like the theater here, the screen showing the movie is usually free at like 8 or 9pm. when whatever other movie showing in there ends, they do the quick clean up and then they let the people in like 3 hours early. if you show up anytime past 9, the theater is most likely very close to full (at least here it is. all the midnight shows i've been to have been packed to the walls, with close to, if not every seat, taken)

^^
Damn man sounds like Canada is rough! Straight up compton

Better a nerd than a crackhead.

thats the first & only problem i've ever had at a movie theater (aside from a challenged kid who screamed & cried throughout the blair witch project, but its not like he could control what he was doing). my & my friends joke about it all the time, and say that for X2, we must had targets on our foreheads or something, cuz it was just all bad luck.

or it was karma coming back at us. while waiting in line for the movie, there was a white board near by that said "lizzie mcguire movie in THIS ----> theater". so we erased a few things and my buddy had a marker on him, so we changed it to Lizzie Mcguires clit in -----> here, 5 bucks to look, 10 bucks to taste.

Here in norway we buy spesific seats, thats much easier, you can show up 1 minute before the movie starts and still have the best seat in the theatre

But I'm involved in the theatre show so I have to be there 6 hours before the movie starts

america's good for many things, but I have noticed over the years, that countries such as Japan, and those in Europe have those "little" things that help out the little things in life, those little but things in life. I think that has to do with our rugged, rough-it past -- most of our creations are straightforward, rugged ones. But I like that idea of "reserved" seating for movies, we wouldn't have to line up hours ahead the day of the screening.
If I could think of one potential downside, it's that if you're late to the game in reserving, then you might have to settle for a bad seat, but at least you know what you're getting, and I'm sure you'll still be able to choose from several options. The pros of that, I think, far outweigh the cons.