Alternate headline: “Popular Movie Is Popular.”
Over the summer, a video of people running to get primo lawn seats for a free screening of Ghostbusters in New York City’s Bryant Park went viral. It’s utter madness, and a decent representation of what the Internet was like last night when tickets for Star Wars: The Force Awakens went on sale. Servers crashed, people were furious, and fan-friendly Alamo Drafthouse even released a statement apologizing for the fiasco. “We tried to be ready for this hugely important day, and we missed the mark,” CEO Tim League wrote in an e-mail. “We apologize for making what was supposed to be a joyous day a big hassle for Star Wars fans. We commit to doing better in the future.”
Meanwhile, Regal is all like ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Despite the calamity, Disney is ecstatic, because The Force Awakens still broke box office records. ‘Bout time those upstarts got a break.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens has established a new record, bypassing The Hunger Games as to move the most tickets in its first day on sale, Fandango reports. It didn’t just surpass that picture, it shattered its benchmark, outselling The Hunger Games eight times over. Traffic to the online ticketer’s site surged to seven times more than its peak level in less than 24 hours.
MovieTickets.com did not release any data, but Star Wars: The Force Awakens is currently the top selling film on its site. It represents 95% of sales over the past 24 hours. (Via)
The Force Awakens is projected to earn $2 billion, which would make it the third highest-grossing movie of all-time, behind Avatar and Titanic. If James Cameron were to direct Episode IX, money would cease to mean anything.
Disney would have it all.
(Via Variety)
