Star Wars: The Force Awakens is Annihilating Advance Ticket Sales Records

[StewShearerOld]

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is Annihilating Advance Ticket Sales Records

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has blown away previous advance tickets sales records for Fandango, AMC and Imax.

So how about that <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/142901-Star-Wars-The-Force-Awakens-First-Full-Trailer#&gid=gallery_4893&pid=1>Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer? If you're anything like us, it probably knocked your socks off twice. That's right. We're saying it was so good that it knocked off one pair of socks and then had enough residual awesome left over to do in a second. All jokes aside, we don't think it'd be an exaggeration to say that the final trailer for The Force Awakens has left fans in a frenzy that the film industry hasn't seen since before The Phantom Menace broke all of our of hearts back in 1999. And while it would usually be hard quantify hype, emerging data about advance ticket sales has given us a window into just how intense excitement for the film may actually be.

According to a variety of sources, advance ticket sales for The Force Awakens are vastly outstripping previous records. At Fandango, <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/star%20wars%20the%20force%20awakens?os=star+wars+the+force+awakens>The Force Awakens has already sold eight times as many tickets as its previous record holder, The Hunger Games. AMC meanwhile has confirmed that its advance ticket sales have broken its previous single-day records by more than ten times, selling out more than 1,000 showings around the United States in under twelve hours. Imax, in turn, has revealed that it's already sold more 6.5 million dollars worth of advance tickets, breaking its records as well. Previous Imax record holders such as The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers had only earned about one million dollars each in pre-release ticket sales.

In other words, if you're hoping to score a ticket for yourself, you might want might to get on that. Granted, it's not like the movie's going to disappear after the first few nights. Theaters are also already adding new showings to help accommodate the high demand. That said, we doubt we're alone in not wanting to be the last ones in town to see the movie and bask in its space opera goodness.

Source: Deadline


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[Elfgore]

This movie is landing in the top five grossing films of all time and I mean the list that has inflation included. I can just feel it. Avatar better be ready to be fighting for their spot.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Thankfully my hometown theater is not a chain and they don't do advance ticket sales. Just have to get there early and I'll be able to see this opening night.

 

[Auron225]

Is anyone surprised? Whether or not it turns out to be any good - everyone and their mother is at least going to go see it and it'll likely be among to top grossing films of all time. As for whether it'll be any good or not, that's another question, but I can't imagine critics will be able to dissuade people's curiosity with any scathing reviews.

 

[Jadak]

I'm sure it'll bother me when the movie is actually out, but right now the thought of dealing with packed full movie theaters is more than enough to make me want to wait a week or two. And forget premiers, packed movies are bad enough, but packed with the sort of people most likely to go to premiers of star wars / trek / comic book / etc movies... No thanks, bunch of weirdos. (yes, I mean you people)

 

[bluegate]

Two month advance ticket sales, because the movie won't run three times a day, seven days a week, for several weeks in every cinema anyway...

 

[StewShearerOld]

Just realizing that, at no point in this news story, did I make "Force is strong with this one" joke.

 

[Jburton9]

Just realizing that, at no point in this news story, did I make "Force is strong with this one" joke.

No worries, you can do that with initial Box office sales : ) It will be interesting to see how many records get surpassed.

 

[Pyrian]

Just have to get there early and I'll be able to see this opening night.

Are you there already?

 

[Ukomba]

As exciting as it is, after The Dark Knight Raises, I'm never seeing a big movie opening weekend again.

 

[Leon Royce]

Cool poster.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Just realizing that, at no point in this news story, did I make "Force is strong with this one" joke.

Well, you're fired. Tsk tsk.


Anyway, on topic: I must admit I'm feeling a bit smug about this. Way more smug than I should be. A while ago, someone made a thread asking which movie would make more, Age of Ultron or Star Wars. I said Star Wars, but I was in the minority (at the beginning). So many people quoted me, saying that Avengers was going to blow Star Wars away because Star Wars was tired, old, worn out, etc...And I remember being so floored that so many people believed that, that I had to go talk to actual people, not the on the escapist, and ask them the same question. They all laughed and said, "Star Wars by a mile."
So, this is me, being smug because I was right over a silly internet forum thing.
Probably going to wait a few days before I go see this though. While I am a die hard Star Wars fan, the thought of so many packed theaters and people cheering over the movie does not appeal to me.

 

[Yozozo]

Just realizing that, at no point in this news story, did I make "Force is strong with this one" joke.

Well, you're fired. Tsk tsk.


Anyway, on topic: I must admit I'm feeling a bit smug about this. Way more smug than I should be. A while ago, someone made a thread asking which movie would make more, Age of Ultron or Star Wars. I said Star Wars, but I was in the minority (at the beginning). So many people quoted me, saying that Avengers was going to blow Star Wars away because Star Wars was tired, old, worn out, etc...And I remember being so floored that so many people believed that, that I had to go talk to actual people, not the on the escapist, and ask them the same question. They all laughed and said, "Star Wars by a mile."
So, this is me, being smug because I was right over a silly internet forum thing.
Probably going to wait a few days before I go see this though. While I am a die hard Star Wars fan, the thought of so many packed theaters and people cheering over the movie does not appeal to me.

I likewise am going to avoid theaters as much as possible. Hell, I'll probably have to sequester myself from any multimedia accounts to remain spoiler free for a month. Or two.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Just have to get there early and I'll be able to see this opening night.

Are you there already?

It's a town of less than 9000 people, most of them retirees. I think I'm good.
(also I set up tent yesterday, hah!)

 

[Mangod]

I'm actually surprised by this. Didn't we burn the last Star Wars trilogy in effigy? Why is everyone falling over themselves to see J.J. Abrams lensflare this one to hell and back?

 

[StewShearerOld]

I'm actually surprised by this. Didn't we burn the last Star Wars trilogy in effigy? Why is everyone falling over themselves to see J.J. Abrams lensflare this one to hell and back?

Responding just to J.J. Abrams portion, his participation in the film is actually a point of confidence for me. While people like to pick on the lens flare thing (perhaps rightfully so), I find him to be a really decent and competent director. His Star Trek movies, for instance, were basically just fast-paced space operas in the same vein as Star Wars. And while it's true that Star Trek: Into Darkness was pretty craptastic, that mostly had to do with the story and writing, which he wasn't really involved in. The actual performances and direction of the film were good, in my opinion.

Speaking more broadly, I also just kind of trust Disney not to let anyone screw this up. Say what you want about the evils of the House of Mouse, but they know how to make good movies and the studios under their umbrella (cough Marvel cough) have made some of the best nerd-fare ever. I also don't think Disney paid $4 billion for Star Wars just so Lucasfilm could squeeze out a stinker.

 

[happyninja42]

And in other obvious news, gravity pulls you towards other objects. I find this news 100% in the "No shit" category of news items. And thus the preorder market grooooows, like a quiet tumor at the base of your colon.

 

[Mangod]

I'm actually surprised by this. Didn't we burn the last Star Wars trilogy in effigy? Why is everyone falling over themselves to see J.J. Abrams lensflare this one to hell and back?

Responding just to J.J. Abrams portion, his participation in the film is actually a point of confidence for me. While people like to pick on the lens flare thing (perhaps rightfully so), I find him to be a really decent and competent director. His Star Trek movies, for instance, were basically just fast-paced space operas in the same vein as Star Wars. And while it's true that Star Trek: Into Darkness was pretty craptastic, that mostly had to do with the story and writing, which he wasn't really involved in. The actual performances and direction of the film were good, in my opinion.

Speaking more broadly, I also just kind of trust Disney not to let anyone screw this up. Say what you want about the evils of the House of Mouse, but they know how to make good movies and the studios under their umbrella (cough Marvel cough) have made some of the best nerd-fare ever. I also don't think Disney paid $4 billion for Star Wars just so Lucasfilm could squeeze out a stinker.

Hell, I'll admit that I'm basically using Abrams as a scapegoat here. It's just... The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith (even if the last one actually had some good moments) were all so bad, taken as a whole, that I... I'm just afraid of getting hurt again.

/melodrama

Edit: and for the record, Star Wreck: Into Darkness had three different writers, which explains why the first third works, and then it's over the top and going downhill fast from there.

To quote Confused Matthew:

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Is anyone surprised?

I'm sure there are plenty of such people. A few months ago there was a thread where people were arguing with a straight face that Avengers 2 was somehow going to beat SW at the box office. So I imagine a lot of them have their calculators out right now.