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Star Wars Prequels Media Movies

Star Wars Ticket Restrictions 55

Posted by CmdrTaco from the this-is-gonna-get-tricky dept.
Christopher Neufeld writes "The DVD Resource Page reports that Lucasfilm is putting certain restrictions on tickets for SW:TPM. According to "theatre exhibitors", no advance tickets will be available, only same-day showings, for at least the first two weeks of the run, and no theatre rentals will be permitted for the first eight weeks." There goes the plans for LinuxExpo. This is gonna be a pain.
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Star Wars Ticket Restrictions More

Star Wars Ticket Restrictions

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  • What's next? Stop TV stations from advertising the movie? Who cares if the tickets are sold 2 weeks ahead of time or if they are sold that night? Are they REALLY that arrogant to think that they're going to be selling out theaters left and right so far ahead of time if they allow pre-sales? I mean, come on folks, it's just a movie! I think I'll go home and just rent a decent movie that night and let the fools flock to the theaters.
  • I'll wait for it to come out on cable... ;>
  • ...were it not for those meddling kids!
  • Absolutely. The theater experience, despite all the advances in home theater equipment - just isn't the same.

    The large screen, audience participation, sticky floors and gooey popcorn...

    Perhaps later generations will miss out with the advent of HDTV and super home hi-fi gear? I don't think so. Real theater technology will move up right along side the home gear. I wager that within the next decade we'll see IMAX quality and maybe even 3D or holographic stuff come along.

  • The article also states that NY and LA are two cities (of four, I presume) slated for the purely digital screening. Best I could find was that it will take place June 18th [starwars.com]. Anyone have any more info?

    A random thought: the folks that wanted to see it a bunch of days in a row are gonna be in for quite a few times. It only says that you can prepurchase tickets for the same day only (then I'll buy 3 tickets: 7pm, 9:30pm, 12am). Seeing it the next day will require waiting in a similarily long line as the day before...*sigh*. Wonder if work will let me off a few days in a row?

    -----
    If Bill Gates had a nickel for every time Windows crashed...

  • He's trying to prevent scalpers.... That's my biggest guess...
    He wants more money..... I think ?
    1) If you rent out a theatre, it'll cost a little more.. The theatre gets that money.. not lucas
    2) If you get lots of tickets weeks before and the first showings are sold out.. Who would pay for $20 tickets?... A lot of people

    This is my guess on what's going through Lucas's mind.... Just a guess
  • This Star Wars fanaticism (sp?) is getting out of hand. I have the perfect solution: just wait! I think anyone who has to see the move the first weekend it comes out is a complete loser. If you see the movie on May 18th instead of June 18th, will your life be that much better when July 1st comes around? No, of course not.

    --
    Timur Tabi
    Remove "nospam_" from email address
  • ... you just want everyone to think that so you'll be the only one in line. I know your game.

    ----------------

    "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." - Albert Einstein
  • Yes, that's the one. It also had Chewchilla, the Wookie Monster and the destruction of planet Basketball. I laughed my ass off when I saw that.

  • He's only doing this so that the lines around the block will be leading up to the release date, rather than the "Tickets On Sale" date.

    That way, all the publicity ("Look at all the geeks in the lines across the country") focuses on one date, not many.

    --

  • Ticket scalpers? People who chop off the top of tickets' heads? Oh, you mean ticket touts.
  • Doubtful. I wouldnt want it anyway. Mono crap. TV/Video is nothing compared to that real theater experience. And for a movie like this, i wouldnt want to see it anywhere else.
  • So you can't rent a theater. Stand in line like the rest of us!!!!!
  • It is not common in the US to scalp (tout?) tickets for movies. But this is Star Wars Episode I we're talking about, so who knows.

    I'm old too, but I'm acting like a kid waiting for Xmas. :-)

    --

  • this is great. as soon as my finals are over, i'm totally in line for a week wearing a wookee costume. i don't understand people whining about this. the line is part of the EXPERIENCE! i wasn't even born in time to do this for episode 4, and i'm glad its not going to be whoever has the most money to afford scalped tickets that gets in first. its the way movie tickets should be sold, i say.
  • We can still rent out a theatre, so it looks.

    Anyone else going to the Expo? :)

    Anyway, is there a reason why lucas is doing this?




    --
  • Sorry, I mean we can still buy all the tickets that day.

    --
  • Folks,

    If Lucasfilm's policy of no advance sales except for the day of showing only for Star Wars: The Phantom Menace is true, I think I will have to avoid the movie theatres for the three weeks after May 19, 1999. :-/

    I can just see the nightmare traffic jams at all the major theatre multiplexes in this period. Not to mention $120 million in box office receipts by the end of May 23, 1999.
  • I plan on at least getting an admission pass. Living in raleigh though, I wonder which theatre we could rent out. I remember the ZOO when the origionals were re-released and that's nothing compared to what its gonna be. I guess that's the way it is everywhere tho.

    Erik
  • In San Jose they were scalping tickets when Men In Black came out. Imaginve star wars.

    Erik

  • Hey! (Score:1)

    by falser ( 11170 )
    Something tells me Lucas and the crew aren't going to go hungry if there's boots floating around, there always will be. The movie companies know it, and are as stupified about what to do as software companies and pirates.

    Star Wars is just so huge it doesn't matter what the heck is on the street - hell I could have a DVD copy of the Menace sitting right next to me at this very moment and I'd still be in line May 21 (or whenever it is).
  • Hmmm... that's probably going to torque off more than a few people - her in Pittsburgh, we have a random collection of geeks that have already arranged for (and I think, paid for) a Saturday-morning showing.

    Besides - what the big deal with theater rentals? How is renting a theater different from having 400+ people get in line at the same time?

  • There's to many threads saying the same sorts of things, so I'll just make one comment on my observations seperate from any of them.

    Yes, StarWars really is that popular. It is not arrogance on Lucas's part, nor is it going to cost him one red (or copper-colored) cent to disallow advance ticket sales. Every single showing will sell out, for at least the first few days, perhaps the first few weeks, depending on just -how- popular it is. Many of us remember standing in line for Empire and Jedi... if you don't remember it, try asking your parents. It was on the evening news, after all, including interviews with people who had been in line since the night before. There's every reason to expect a repeat of this situation for the newest movie, especially given how long we've waited.

    That being said - if the popularity of StarWars annoys, exasperates, or bores you, well - this is under the StarWars discussion topic. You don't need to read it. Your preferences settings may come in useful here.

    Parity
  • I agree (in part) that Lucas wants lines around the block on opening night. But I also think he wants to give everyone an equal chance at getting in on opening night.

    Let's say Microsoft decided to reward the Windows 2000 dev team with a free screening. They do, in fact, rent out theaters on the Eastside all the time to do this. For the last ten years, they've had to suffer with lame Star Trek releases, but that's another story.

    Why should George allow the Microsoft Borg a treat at the expense of everyone else in the region? He shouldn't. BUT..... while it's a good policy in general, George might be open to pursuasion that SPECIFIC exceptions should be made, where non-profit groups (including 1. Linux Expo attendees, who are the metaphorical underdogs against the Empire, 2. local Star Wars fan clubs, who have been loyal for 20 years, and 3. possibly charities of interest to LucasFilms) could rent out theaters.

    Now you could still get the lines around the block on opening night simply by HOLDING the pre-bought tickets for the people at the theater, and say that you have to pick up the tickets 30-60 minutes before show time. It's just that at special, rented-out theaters, only people in the affiliated group would have tickets available to them. (Or for charities, only people who bought their tickets through those charities, at a premium price.)

    George loves the underdog, and I think he could be pursuaded by this concept, even to include Linux Expo (Tux might be the linchpin). He doesn't reeeeeally care about squeezing every last dime out of this picture; he wants to do the right thing. If you want some verification of this interpretation, check out the feature story on him in this past (Sunday's?) New York Times.
  • To paraphrase the epic short Hardware Wars:

    Was that the one with Ham Salad and the Refrigerator troopers?

  • Hello,

    Our group of Pittsburgh people got refunds for our already-reserved showing. In my opinion, what this is designed to do is to level the playing field for the individual viewer rather than the large groups. I, for one, am all for it. Even those of us who are going with groups still want a shot at one of the elusive first showings.

    Joe
  • Hello,

    In my mind, there are a couple things to consider here:

    1) If you rent out a theather, it usually costs less than actually going. It's like doing anything in bulk. But Lucas still gets the same take no matter what.

    2) What is more likely to happen is that there will be a number of oppurtunistic people that will be standing by the door with tickets that they might be willing to give up... for about $100. Scalpers are not to be welcomed at these showings and this is one way to help the problem.

    Joe
  • From what I've heard, he wants to make sure everyone has an equal chance of seeing it when it comes out. I wouldn't be suprised to see scalpers try to make some money on the first nights otherwise (I'd prolly pay them too :/).

    This isn't new, btw - There has been mentions of the ticket polices on the Star Wars fan sites (like theforce.net) about it for a while now, at least 2-3 weeks ago.
  • There is something to be said about the theatre experience; I'll probably try out both the digital version and the regular version, just to see if there really is a quality difference.

    Of course, if you have a 40" projection with a adequate 5.1 surround sound system, and can get Star Wars episode 1 on DVD, you won't be missing all that much from a theatre...

    AS
  • Do they ever *allow* camcorders? Besides sneaking them in, of course. I thought most theatres(not even talking Lucas or other filmmakers) would actively snuff out cam-corders, as being competition or something...

    AS
  • Yup.
    Hey, that would be neat. If Lucas is so pushing digital format as to release it digitally on June 18th or something, I would hope that means he supports DVD and releases it accordingly =)

    AS
  • I'm wondering if the demand for the specially equipped digital theatres is going to be even higher than the regular showings; how many Star Wars fans who would line up for blocks to see the regular showing would see the digital version? Who would also visit one of the 4 cities just to see it?

    I'm curious, with Lucas's support for the digital medium, if he's also going to support a DVD release, and soon, of Episode 1, since it is already going to be in a digital format? As opposed to converting the film to digital and then mastering to DVD. Of course, he may think DVD isn't good enough, but if Episode 1 can be released on VHS, I don't see the objection to DVD...

    AS
  • Is what you're suggesting possible?
    Can a x86 notebook, assume P3 450, do realtime mpeg encoding? I thought that only Dec Alphas at 600MHz can do realtime mpeg encoding, with a CPU that is easily 2 to 5 times more powerful than a comparable clockspeed; with a 1.5 clockspeed difference, this jumps up to 3-8 times faster...

    I actually don't understand why a significant portion of the internet population would download an 400mb movie like Star Wars; people who just can't wait don't matter, because they will pay again just to see it in full glory in the theatres when/if it gets released, or will buy the VHS/DVD/LD version as well. Without a significant portion demanding this service, it probably won't happen, no matter how technologically capable it becomes. Are you talking about the warez crowd? I don't quite understand that sometimes either. Am I missing something?

    AS
  • Some things I think:
    They don't want a really dedicated group(like the students at Caltech, for example =) from buying out a screen, and all the showings, for a few days in a row, and reserve it only for those select few who are involved. Trust me, if we could, we would buy out a screen, all day, for at least a day. There are enough of us who would watch it at least once, and more than enough who would watch it 3 times, to deny the viewing pleasure for everyone else in the area. Lucas does not want this. And this movie has enough hype and word of mouth that this *would* happen if he allowed it.

    That's why sales won't be 2 weeks ahead. He want's first come first serve, and not the enterprising buying out every seat and perhaps hawking it for a higher price, or just denying the regular public from enjoying his film.

    Arrogance has nothing to do with it. I'm sure he's using some of the experiences on the re-releases of his first 3 movies to base his actions. He knows there is incredible hype and word of mouth; the number of official downloads of his trailers from starwars.com and apple.com tell him how many are interested, and that's only people with PCs.

    This is *not* just a movie, if Lucas had any involvment. Much like the original trilogy, this will be another culture defining moment in history. Technologically ground breaking, and extending the myth, it will be a factor and force in US history and culture for another generation, and maybe for all eternity, alongside Elvis, Marilyn, Sinatra, etc. His original trilogy is already entrenched in our culture, and if this movie is even half as good as we expect, so should this new trilogy.

    Call us fools, if you want, but there are a lot of us fools =)

    AS
  • You crazy brits. Always inventing words. Not like us lazy Americans. Although I do like to use the
    British 'arse' a fair bit. Tis a sly word.
  • They're trying to stop ticket scalpers and places that sell concert tickets and whatnot from buying up all the theaters. Then, with then being the only source for tickets they could jack up the prices as high as they wanted.

    With the control measures there's at least some leveling of the playing field. Although there's nothing stoping you from camping out in front of the theater to be first in line.
  • Well, probably because 400 people don't actually get in line... With a big event like Star Wars its no fun if everyone just rents a theatre and watches it privatly... The lines will be amazing... August
  • If I recall correctly, the original movies had the same sort of restrictions around here. I'd cut classes and take my lawn chair, cooler stocked with sodas, radio, and a good book or two, and camp out at 9:00 am for the 6:00 pm show.

    To paraphrase the epic short Hardware Wars: "You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll kiss nine bucks goodbye. Coming soon to a theater near you. Get in line now!"

    - Bob


  • INTSLASHDOT TUNNEL - DAY

    A dark tunnel with a small platform in the middle, on which LUCAS, 50, is hanging over a wounded FANS, 8-80, with his hand outstretched.

    FANS
    No, no. That's not true! That's impossible!

    LUCAS
    Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

    FANS
    NOOOOOOOOOOOO!
  • Every interview with Lucas always has him mentioning how he loved the old way movies were, serials and all. That's how he got hooked.

    SW:ANH was (arguably) one of the first true sci-fi "blockbusters". Sure, movies had big lines in the past (grep "Fox Theatre" | grep "Gone with the Wind"), but SW changed how lines formed. I think Lucas thinks (to some degree) it will make movies more like they used to be, with people getting in line real early to see the movie they knew would be popular. It's exciting. It's fun. Sure, it will piss off all of us who want to KNOW what showing we'll be going to six weeks in advance, but that doesn't change the fact that we are all going to go see it.

    Of course, as soon as exams are over, *I'm* going to get in line for tix. I'll probably be halfway back by then... that will only be two weeks before the 19th. :)

    -Chris
  • or worse yet, renting out an entire theater, and then selling all the "tickets" at $20 a pop to people who want to be assured of seeing it on opening night, and running away with huge ass profits. That's definitly not good, and is a good reason for Lucas to not allow this.

    Besides, the line waiting is half of the Star Wars experinece!!

    -B
  • I keep wondering how many screens it's gonna show on. for instance, within 20 miles of my house there are around 100 screens (what whith various 24 and 30 screen theaters in the area) How many of those screens will it be on? I assume alot, as these are some of the biggest theaters in the world, right in the middle of one of the biggest cities in america(houston) but what if they only get like 1 film per theatre or something. on the other hand, they could put it in like 10 theaters--it won't sell out but the line will be a mile long--you won't be able to get to the end of it before the movie starts! I think the one thing that is guaranteed is that is that for that first week almost every showing will be packed. Even that cheesy John Grisham movie "The Firm" managed that much, at least at the theatre I worked at.

    Oh well, nothing to do now but wait
  • ARRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

    But.. I guess it's understandable. In fact upon reflection I am kind of glad scalpers won't be able to get (many) tickets. Oh well, I guess it's time to break out the sleeping bags and camping stove.

  • I thought he wanted to make lots of money on this!!! He'd make more if he opening up ticket sales early. There's no way he'll sell as many if everyone has to stand in line the day of the show! So much for getting in early! Looks like I'll be waiting till friday to see it. I can't get out of work all day wednesday to camp out in line. So much for getting me early, Lucas. This wasn't the way to do it.
    --
    Matthew Walker
    My DNA is Y2K compliant
  • With a big event like Star Wars its no fun if
    everyone just rents a theatre and watches it privatly...

    Man, I just love big-ass lines and a crowd in the movie theater when I'm waiting for a flick.
    When the Special Edition came out, a group of friends and I went to see the midnight showing on the first night. We waited in the main lobby for an hour just to buy tickets, and then the management herded us all into the side hallway to wait for the theater to open up. We stayed in this cattle herding area for another 45 minutes or so, then they dropped the rope and everybody freakin' RAN to the theater. Never mind that we already had our tickets, or our tickets had already been checked by the pimplyfaced theater usher. No, everybody still had to run down this narrow hallway to get a seat they had already been guaranteed.

    A friend of mine, already claustrophobic, freaked out and was almost trampled when she tried to move out of the way. Yeah. Real nice. Near-riot for a movie most of us had seen this flick many times before.

    I'm just speaking from personal experience here, but count me in as someone who doesn't think waiting in extra-long lines with tons of people enhances the movie-going experience.

    *shrug*

  • Why (Score:1)

    by Telsa ( 29774 )
    In hope that I might remotely be in the states around Expo date I asked friends about the chances of booking tickets: the idea of seeing it in the US as it came out really appealed. They said at the time that there didn't appear to be a chance of booking in advance. I rather assumed that it was an American thing of not doing advance booking, as several people were surprised I thought such a thing was possible.

    As for scalpers: what are they? Are they what are referred to as ticket touts in the UK? People who buy up all the advance tickets and then sell them at a profit to people who then can't get tickets? I assume so. I hadn't realised that the US was -quite- so prone to this: it happens for music gigs and sports events here, but for cinemas?? Wow.

    ObReminiscence: I remember queuing for hours for Star Wars when it came out (yes, I'm old..) I also remember, years later, queuing for tickets for Queen, who were playing at the local football (soccer) grounds. The way it was handled there was that -even if you were there in person-, you could only buy six tickets. This was an anti-tout measure. If US cinemas do go for the 'only selling to people on the day' approach, is such a scenario of limiting ticket numbers likely? Knowing that would be handy.

  • One of the 4 is in Seattle, the old Cinerama. Paul Allen (co-founder of MSFT, now big-time investor of misc. random stuff and sports teams) bought it and converted it to digital. Did he buy it just to be first to see The Phantom Menace? Talking about overpaying for a ticket!

    The big plus on the digital system is no film damage over time. The big minus is lower apparent resolution than a good projector. They are using TI DLP and Hughes-JVC lightvalve technologies. I don't know which one will be used for TPM.
  • According to the same article, it says:

    "Lastly, and of most impact to DVD Resource readers, is the word that theater rentals will be prevented for the first eight weeks of the run. "

    Guess there goes that idea. Any information on which theatres will be allowed to show ep 1, btw?
  • Apparently this is Lucas' plan for deterring scalpers. I don't think it'll help really, I do tech support for a large theatre chain, and have seen this before. The scalpers just walk around crowds scalping the tickets on opening day.

    A few of our theatres are already allowed to let people line up, I know that the usual scalpers will be first in line.

    TPM will be on only 4000 screens, and no competing films have been announced. I wonder what will end up against it?

    Also, the film will be on four screens in the new digital format. Does anyone know which four?

    Pie, it's what's for dinner
    BadassMoFo

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