wtf movie?

[unbibium]

So I buy my Dark knight tix two hours in advance, after a lifetime of buying tickets twenty minutes in advance.

So 45 minutes before show time, I figure I'll show up and stroll in early.

I notice there's a line out the door, and I have to go to the end of it, and it wraps around many many corners, some of which smell awful.. There must be hundreds ahead of me.

This has never happened before. I mean it. Remember when Phantom Menace came out and there were lines in the news of people waiting for days? By skipping the midnight show. I was able to see it at noon the following day. Other people must be similarly befuddled, because some people are giving up and leaving their place in line.

what kind of logistical failure accounts for our current predicament?

Comments

[templeemc.livejournal.com]

I went in an hour early for 10:30pm, had to buy tickets for a midnight show and then had to wait in a line that was a mile long.
The movie was so long, we got out of the theater to darkness (I guess the parking lot lights are on a timer). I was worried I'd hit pedestrians.
A mess... but at least the movie was great.
I couldn't believe how awesome Ledger was.

[davetheinverted]

I don't necessarily see it as a logistical failure. There are only so many screens out there, and there *are* other movies that are still making money out there and that have contractually-obligated runs.

So when you get a movie that not only has the Big Hype, but *is good enough to sustain it*...you're going to get a weekend like this.


Dav2.718

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

The logistical problem I can see is that movie theaters tend to be prepared in one way or another to queue a fill screen's worth of waiting patrons, but probably not more than 2 screen's worth. After that, they back them out the door. They can only stagger the movies so much because if you over-do the staggering, one or more of the screens will have one show fewer than the others on a given day, and that's a no-no.

[pentomino.livejournal.com]

Oh, and also, our ticket was good for one of two possible theaters. That's kind of the opposite of staggering.