Valley fans line up for first ‘New Moon’ screenings
With nearly every ticket for the 25 scheduled Thursday midnight showings of “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” in Fresno and Clovis selling out long before the doors opened, local theater managers scrambled to add last-minute screenings to meet the demand.
It wasn’t enough to have a ticket for the latest chapter in the love story of Bella (Kristen Stewart) and her vampire beau, Edward (Robert Pattinson), based on the four-book series by Stephenie Meyer. Ticketholders began forming lines as early as 8 a.m. Thursday to get choice seats. Many fans purchased tickets when they went on sale in September.
Melissa Soriano was first in line at Regal Manchester 16, arriving at 8:30 a.m. to stake out a spot for herself and 17 friends. The 23-year-old Fresno woman, dressed in a black T-shirt adorned with Edward’s face, asked for two days off work so she could be one of the first to see the movie.
“I didn’t become a fan of the books until I saw the movie ‘Twilight’ last year,” Soriano said as she re-read “New Moon’ to pass the time.
Soriano’s group wasn’t the only one making an event of the “New Moon” opening. A survey by the online movie-ticket Web site Fandango showed 72% of ticket buyers planned to see the movie with a group of three friends or more.
The huge local turnout isn’t a complete surprise. Last year, the Edwards Stadium 22 had the highest box-office totals in the country for midnight showings of the first movie in the series, “Twilight.”
The area in front of the Edwards theaters looked like a camp-out Thursday evening as moviegoers brought chairs, blankets, books and food to pass the time. Delaney Wiitala, a 16-year-old Sunnyside resident, was the first to arrive at 10 a.m.
The “Twilight” mania was repeated across the country. Fandango reported “New Moon” as the No. 1 movie for pre-sale tickets, passing such big film franchises as “Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith,” “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” and “The Dark Knight.”
“For many fans, it’s clearly the year’s most-anticipated film event,” said Fandango Chief Operating Officer Rick Butler.
More than 90% of ticket sales on MovieTickets.com were for “New Moon.” The Web site reported hundreds of sold-out screenings nationwide.
“By landing the Number 1 spot on our advance-ticket sellers list, ‘New Moon’ has broken a record that has stood unchallenged for almost five years,” said Joel Cohen, executive vice president and general manager for MovieTickets.com.
By Rick Bentley / The Fresno Bee
REAL vampires are sucking the life blood out of this country and right at this moment are debating the future of healthcare in the USA which will be a complete disaster if the Senate allows this government run takeover of health care bill to become law and all these idiots care to do is buy tickets and stand in line for hours to see a stupid movie, when their freedom of choice hangs in the balance.
Bread and circuses! Why are you guys buying into fantasy when there are REAL VAMPIRES ABOUT!?!?! You should be standing shoulder to shoulder in front of the Capitol in protest of this horrendous bill, instead of standing around, wasting time, money and energy in front of a movie theatre! Oh yeah…that’s exactly what theose vampires in the Senate want you to do. Tehy don’t want you to pay attention to them as they suck your blood and the blood of your children!
Oh, Puh-LEEZ! Bring on the healthcare reform. The insurance companies and pharmacuetical companies are the REAL vampires. And the insurance companies are the ones who decides who lives and gets treatment and who is denied treatment (because it’s too costly…). And what about those who can’t afford insurance and have no health care??? It’s the 21st century and we are still NOT taking care of our own. It’s just corporate GREED and it’s WRONG! Stop watching FOX news and pull your republican head out of your republican behind and look at what is really going on. I just hope you NEVER have to experience a parent, spouse, child–or even you, yourself–being denied treatment from your insurance company for a life-saving operation or treatment. The insurance companies are the ones playing God… NOT the lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
TLC you are an idiot if you believe that public health care is the way to go take a look at other countries that currently have this…their health care systems are a mess. Second open your eyes and take your entitlement head out of your entitlement ass and realize that the government has not, cannot and will not be able to efficiently run anything–who do you suppose is going to bear the brunt of this plan financially?—wait I know your answer—the people in the upper tax brackets who already pay the majority of taxes—and who might you suggest are entitled to these benefits?—wait I know your answer to that also–the same people who already receive over 8 dollars in government assistance for each dollar paid in taxes. Here’s an idea, a mere suggestion, instead of sitting around waiting for someone to give you something for nothing get out and WORK FOR IT. What happens when the people paying the bills for this financially idiotic government just quit doing it? If you (TLC) and others want health care for you and your families then you need to WORK for it–I know to some that word (work) is foreign, but it is how you afford things like health care. It is not mine or any other person responsibility to pay for it for others whether directly or indirectly. One more question, if this is heath care plan is so great then why aren’t the lawmakers going to be on the same plan? these posts are totally irrelevant and off topic, which was an article written about some stupid movie, but government run heath care is not something we as Americans should let happen.
Wow, D, you must be in a wonderfully fortunate place to believe that all you need to do is work to get health care. Maybe you should check into the reality of insurance companies before you start accusing people of trying to just get health care for free. For example, the 2006 US Census Bureau found that there were 17.6 million people uninsured with a household income over $50,000 a year and 9 million people whose household income made over $75,000. The problem with current healthcare is that if your employer doesn’t offer it, you have to get it on your own–which may not be affordable or unattainable if you have a preexisting condition (I was without insurance for 3 years because my employer didn’t offer it and my asthma made every insurance company I applied for deny me coverage). And those with insurance still don’t benefit from it–these people still go into bankrupcy because of inadequate coverage of costs, still don’t get the services they need, and still suffer at the hands of insurance companies. The insurance companies have no reason to help people if they can’t profit from it. Denying that health care reform is necessary is uneducated and riduculous. Maybe the Obama’s plan isn’t the best, but pretty much anything would be better than it is now.
Oh, D… REALLY??? Canada, England and France all have public health care and all are working out fine. And for your information, I–like so many people out there- DO work and I DO have insurance, but it is not the best health care coverage. There are so many people out there that DO work and do NOT have any health care coverage. Just consider yourself lucky that you or no one else in your family have never been DENIED treatment by your health care provider (even if you do have insurance, you can be DENIED treatment) because of a costly proceedure or pre-exisiting condition. The healthcare system that was originally proposed has been altered/changed/etc by those fighting it. But even the watered down version that is slowly working its way through the system is better than NO healthcare reform.
And as for those people in the upper tax brackets…are you one of them crying poor because your taxes have increased? Puh-LEASE! The wealthy enjoyed major tax cuts under Bush…it’s time they paid up. Besides, that top 1% of the population that the taxes will affect have made all of their money off of the other 99% in one way or another. It’s time to give back—or are they (you) really THAT greedy? Geez!
I stand by what I said earlier: