Mondo Kane

What's with all the projectors going out? Is it a digital thing?

Nesbit

There was a huge accident on the road leading to the theatre which made us turn around and get on the freeway. When we got there, about 20 minutes later, there was NO parking. Now this wouldn't bother me except for the fact that 1/4 of the parking was taken up by Semi's for a local festival. So have to park about a half mile away. After walking back and getting through the line the previews start. The order for the trailers was Mr/Mrs. Smith, Batman Begins, some jet movie staring Jamie Fox, Batman Begins, Mr and Mrs. Smith, the jet movie, Batman Begins, and then the Fantastic 4. People were pissed but I don't think anyone carred as soon as the 20th Century Fox logo appeared.

PixyJunket

The night was good from the moment I got out of work. Paid to tollway to get home a few minutes quicker and made my calls arranging meeting times and played a few games of my new favorite PS1 game, Zanac x Zanac. Enamored by the soundtrack, I took the disc to my PC and ripped the soundtrack to MP3. Friends show up around 9, we drive to the theater to see how many people are there.. not bad at all.. so we go pick up food. Sit outside the theater eating when we find out they've already been seating people for certain showings (ours being one of them). So in we go, excellent seating for our group of 8 and no long line-waiting. Chit chat amongst ourselves and play some Gameboy games. Had a cream cheese pretzel, it rocked. 11 hits, past my bedtime.. start to feel it.. get a Coke.. helps a little bit. Commercials are rightly booed and ridiculed, trailers garner no reaction (except for a uproarious applause for Shark Boy and Lava Girl, no doubt in sarcasm). Star Wars logo hits, cheers and light sabers in there air (I had my Mace Windu purple up) and the movie starts. Movie rules. Get home, go to sleep, wake up three hours later, come to work, post on forum making special attention to further reduce the dumb ass Batman and Fantastic Four trailers. The end.

nodeerforamonth

No one dressed up at mine, but they had FIVE theaters all sold out. One line for all of them. Depending on where they cut off the lines for each theater (they let you in as they filled them up), you could've been in the middle of the line and been the first person in the theater with your choice of seats. Kind of screws those who waited in line for 12 hours, but they were stupid for doing that in the first place.

A couple kids in my theater. Isn't this a school night? The kids couldn't have been more than 8 years old.

I got in line around 9:30pm. I guess the SW episodes I & II had a big impact on people, because I don't think 80% of the people there were even alive when A New Hope came out in '77.

Some ASSHOLES from a radio station (that will remain nameless because they want the publicity) saw the movie before everyone else and showed up at a different location than mine, took a bullhorn and started spoiling the movie for those waiting in line. Had that happened at my theater, I would be in jail right now. Probably death row.

TomOpus

Went pretty well. Stopped by the theater around 4 and the lines weren't bad so I went to eat and buy a book. Got in line around 4:30. Not many were dressed up, though. There was one little 4 yr old Darth Vader... pretty cute!

It was an AMC so there was $1 hot dogs/Cokes/pop corn. Also various people were handing out coupons/flyers to the crowd. The high point was when 3 cheerleaders from the San Diego Riptide (Arena Football) handed out 2for1 coupons.

They let us in at 9pm. There was 16 soldout theaters so I guess they wanted to make sure there was plenty of time to get concessions. The DLP showing went flawless. Crowd was into it. All was well with the universe.

The weird thing was when all 16 theaters let out at once. Man, talk about a mob scene.

chrisih8u

Just before the previews started, the lights went out for a minute. Everyone started clapping. Then the lights came back on and an employee was standing at the front of the theatre. He said they were collecting money for the Jimmy Fund, which is a charity to help kids with cancer. About half the theatre starts booing this guy because they wanted the movie to start.

So then another employee dressed as Darth Vader comes out and force chokes the other guy. Then he says we should donate money to the empire instead. The first employee gets up and pulls out a lightsaber. Darth Vader pulls out his lightsaber and they start dueling. The good guy won and then passed around a cup to donate money.

huh?

5 shows all sold out. There were a ton of people dressed up. They let us into the theatre at about 10:30, so some of the people who had lightsabers with them started a dualing tournament.

I think there were 4 darth vaders and 3 storm troopers at my showing.

zekeburger1979

I'm not sure how many screens were sold out at my theater, but Theater 1 at Studio 28, which holds 884 people was definitely sold out.

For TPM and AOTC, the theater used a lottery system for tickets. This time, it was come in and buy them and hope you got a midnight show. Stupid thing was, a week ago, they decided that they would be going to color-coded button system for getting people into the theater. So, yesterday, starting at 5:00, they started handing out the buttons. I can understand why they did this, why not say so when you start selling the tickets? Mis-managed. Wasn't really a big deal, since I got a seat where I wanted to anyways.

Plenty of people dressed up. A few people had those $100 lightsabers. I want one, dammit!

Trivia contest and a costume contest along with a bizzare demonstration by a local karate class. I wasn't really paying attention since I was playing Zelda: Four Swords on my GBASP. A guy who dressed up at Queen Amidala won the costume contest.

The manager came down before the show, had the lights shut off, and had everyone who had a lightsaber, hold it up.

Trailers:
Batman Begins (Big cheers from the crowd.)
Mr. and Mrs. Smith (No cheers, but I could tell people are going to go see it)
The Island (I booed when the title card "From the Director of Pearl Harbor and Armageddon" came up)
Fantastic Four (no reaction from the crowd whatsoever; this is probably going to bomb)
Pink Panther (This one got some boos and jeers during and after it ended.)

No distractions during the movie and big round of applause when it ended.

PixyJunket

That rocks.

jarofclay73

I'm glad the theater I was in was for the most part quiet. We clapped at the beginning and at the end.

Some people dressed up: Darth Vader, some stormtroopers, red Imperial guards, and a little boy dressed as a TIE pilot. The first guy in line had built a life-size R2-D2 and a life-size Grievous. Pretty cool.

buckee1

Our theater had some of the same things happen as well. They dimmed the lights for a time then brought them back up and held our start time ten-minutes later than our ticketed time. I may be wrong but, it seemed as though they may have been trying to stagger the endings of each film so as to not have a log jam in the parking lot. There were a couple of people dressed up as jedi and one or two as Leia but no vaders or mauls were present. They were showing it in six theaters @ NCG Cinema, East Lansing and they were all filled to capacity. After the lights dimmed (for real this time!) the crowd cheered and clapped and then all was silent for the rest of the movie. The only unusual part was at the end no one clapped or had anything to say. They all just filed out into the night.

Mutley Hyde

I was going to wait until a weekday morning showing, because I hate theter crowds, but a buddy called me at the last minute. He had an extra ticket for a private screening a local comic book store was putting on. It was at one of those bar and grill theaters which have very limited seating space (compared to the magaplexes), so I was like, why the hell not?

Had a great time. Had a few drinks, some pizza, and even won a Batman graphic novel the comic book store gave away.

The best thing though was that it wasn't crowded at all, and everyone was well behaved. There were a few outbursts of either laughter or applause here and there, but there were no ongoing conversations, laser pointers, cell phones, yoda yoda yoda.

Oh, and the film ran fine - no stoppages, no image or audio glitches.

freudguy

Well, the sound was screwed during the trailers but was fixed JUST before the movie started. It was ironic because this theater had advertised how awesome their new sound system was and all we heard was convoluted bass.

Anyways, the movie was great. The only annoyances there were a brief moment right before the Ani/Obi duel when the projector stopped but almost immediately resumed & some teenage girls in front of us laughed at moments that weren't supposed to be funny (like laughing at Palp's face after the Mace fight). That irritated me a little but no big whoop .

My son kinda screwed the experience for me, unfortunately. As we were driving home, he complained all the way home about having to go to bed and not having time to do anything else as well as actually having the nerve to complain that he shouldn't have seen the movie because he had an achievement test to do today (Friday) and that he needed to get his rest and ROTS was gonna be buzzing around in his head?! (wow, how's that for a run-on sentence) Then, he chose to gripe because I refused to go by Walmart so I could buy him some ROTS figures! Little did he know that I had a few waiting for him at home that I had been saving for him to give opening day for making great grades on his report card. I almost didn't give them to him and now wish I hadn't due to the way he acted after the movie. He was completely bratty and spoiled. Sigh.

All I wanted was to talk about the movie and geek out over the cooler parts of it. After all, I pretty much waited over 25 years for this flick (ever since I read about the lava duel back in 1977-78). I wanted to share this experience with my son and all he wanted to do was complain about things.

Geez, sorry for the rant. It just disappointed me.

Chrisedge

My theater wasn't even sold out for the 8:00pm showing (none of the showings really sold out)

You could have showed up at around 7:30pm and still gotten a very good seat.

Well behaved audience as well.

chess

Skipped out of work at lunch, got some tacos, and saw a 1:30 matinee yesterday.

Theater was about 2/3 full and we got great seats. Nice crowd except for one whining kid for a minute or two. The crowd laughed out loud at parts that were genuinely funny (mostly R2) and a few clapped at the end. Not a bad experience at all for opening day.

AeroStone

I woke up singing Bill Murrays version of "Star Wars"!

I shaved, and though I didnt "costume it"... knowing this was a very somber occasion, I wore ALL black..save for a tan baseball style hat...needed a slight splash of color ya know... oh..and my silver link watch with burgandy dial...all in all, I cut a "swarthy figure" I must say...

Everything went as near smooth as possible.... I had gas in the car, but needed to get cash at the ATM... no lines...sweet..

I live 15 minutes away from the Theater.. and I swear, except for one single red light, it was green all the way baby!

I went to a pre noon show and nobody in line! SWEET...

The theater filled to about 3/4... but nobody sat next to me, behind me or in front of me....DOUBLE SWEET.... except for the people..being in public is FUN!

The bad parts were that the stupid projectionist..or whatever they're called now... started the film with low sound for about 20 seconds.... the movie was too dark and didnt have the contrast adjusted enough...and the theater lights werent completely dimmed for about 20 minutes..assholes...

I couldnt help noticing that only 11 am in the morning, there was people eating friggin nachos w/melted cheese... certain smells I cannot handle early in the day...good lord...I just got done with breakfast and I see soda and nachos being downed in the "AM"! Freaked me out..also noted that the majority of those who were chowing like that so early were FAT people..not chubby..but FAT...gee..I wonder how they became obese?

After the movie, people clapped...on the way out folks wrre like.."that fuckin rocked"! ... except for 2 nincompoops who said.."it was stu-pit... why dey split dem keeds up from dey momma".... there always someone in a crowd to end whatever great experience I have, to somehow piss me off and wanna smash their face in....oh well....

SmackDaddy

Well, me and 3 of my buds were in line around 5:30pm. We had chairs, cooler and KFC, so we were set. When we arrived 14 of the 16 theaters were sold out. They ended up expanding to 24 screens (out of 30) and all were sold out!!

We had several guys from the 501st (stormtroopers and a couple of Fetts) several Jedi, a few Leia's and one Jar Jar. And a locxal news crew came by, so I may have been on the news!

They let us in a lot earlier than the last two SW midnight shows. As soon as the 6 o'clock shows were done (around 7:30-8pm) they started letting people into the theaters. We were ticked at first because we had plenty food/drinks to last us until 11 or so when they normally let us in. But they offered $1 hot dogs, popcorn and drinks...so that was cool. We had a really good crowd...good times!

Miyazaki

I saw it at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin Texas. Overall, a great experience. I got there a few hours before the movie, to wait in our respective line. All six screens were showing the movie, and each screen had it's own line. People were served drinks by the waitstaff while there.

When we went into the theatre, each and every single person in the sold out theater got a copy of Star Wars Galaxies for the PC, as well as the Jump to Lightspeed expansion pack. Also, before the movie they were showing The Clone Wars cartoon, which ended just as ROTS began.

Oh, the Austin Fan Force asked some trivia questions, giving away a vintage Yoda action figure, a signed Admiral Ackbar picture, and....another action figure which I can't remember.

Very nice, a lot of fun.

Edit - I forgot to mention that before the movie they also showed the fan film Troops, Mark Hamill, Threepio, Artoo and Chewie on The Muppet Show, and some other Star Wars related clips.

Jazzbutcher

saw the 9:30 show last night. Got there an hour early and was like 10th in line. pretty tame crowd...and one annoying jackass who coughed (really loud raspy hack)through the middle of the movie. I usually don't say squat in situations like this but I finally asked him to "take his tuberculosis to the lobby so the rest of us can enjoy the movie!"

bhk

All midnight shows sold out. Got tickets for the 4:30 am(yes am) show. Went to sleep at 9pm, got up at 3:45 am, walked over. Theater was still crowded and there weren't 2 seats together(which was OK as I was alone). Overall, the crowd was quiet throughout. Great experience.

BlackCapTen

Went to the 6:30 show Thurs. evening. Aside from the tremendously fat chick who decided to plop down next to me as the previews were rolling, everything was great.

duff beer

Look at this unfortunate soul's time seeing RoTS.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0121766/board/nest/19479477

Mondo Kane

Went to a 7:30 pm show. Packed. One guy (I guess) was in costume (Looked more like a LOTR character) Glad I didn't save seats near the top (Stadium seating) because there was a loud toddler near there who kept on fussing.
The sound sucked ass. The left speaker appeared to have been blown out. This was noticable on the Obi-Ani/Dooku fight when Anakin's 'saber barely made a noise when it was ignited.

I might go again to see it on sunday. Its playing on 2 screens nearby but I gotta make sure I get tickets for the OTHER screen.

BTW, I felt BAD for those who sat up at the very front because the opening space battle (Before the jedi get inside Greivous's ship) made me dizzy as hell. And I was 8 rows back!

TomOpus

I saw it again this morning and the crowd was much more sedate compared to the midnight crowd. It was a nice difference, though.

buckee1

Saw it again last night. Sound was low throughout the picture and the couple behind us had kids who just would not stop talking. And their dad kept making the most annoying vader-breathing sound at all the innapropriate moments. And he was adding lines to certain parts like when palp goes to Anakin's aid on Mustafar, the chucklehead behind me goes "we can rebuild him" a la the six million doallar man. I'll be so glad when this hits DVD so I won't have to deal with that kind of feh anymore.