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Star Wars Ticket Restrictions
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.
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
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
--Parity
'Card carrying' member of the EFF.
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.
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
-AS
*Pikachu*
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.
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