Are they really your grandparents? That is definitely a great image of a cinematic milestone.

 

I remember the same thing being true for both the OT Edits, and the Prequels. People waited in lines not just for a few hours, but for days, months even. I remember people being camped out, outside the theaters, too. That is one success that the Disney Wars has never been able to produce.

 

Ive always attributed this to the fact that almost all cinemas have assigned seating now.

Even ten years ago, where I live this wasn't the norm. You'd buy your ticket and then figure out where you were sitting once you walked in. If you wanted a good seat in a crowded cinema, you had to line up.

I knew where I was sitting for the TFA, TLJ and TROS premieres months in advance, so just turned up about half an hour before to meet friends and enjoy the people in costumes.

 

I could see what you're saying being true if it were just a few days or so, but for months? No, I think it had a lot more to do with people being excited for Star Wars, rather than the lack of assigned seating. Some how, I think if there was assigned seating, people would still be waiting in lines for months to see them.

 

People buy tickets months in advance when they're made available. I had my TFA tickets in, I think, October. It's just that it's all online purchasing and assigned seating, so no lines.

 

Some how I think people buying tickets months in advance is a whole lot different than actually waiting in line for months. You know, camping out with tents and stuff. Not exactly the same thing.

 

Yeah honestly the security of having an assigned seat has been great, especially with big movie events like TFA and Avengers these days.

I will say that I never had anywhere near as much trouble getting into any of the ST movies that I had getting into Infinity War and Endgame. The worst I got was missing the 6 PM premiere of TROS, and I still caught the 10 PM showing. Infinity War, I bought in mid late March since the 6 PM premiere was nearly full. And Endgame, good lord that was a battle to book premiere tickets and it took an hour of concentrated attacks by me, my brother, and my coworker before we got our tickets at last.

TFA was really the only “event” of the ST since it was the return of Star Wars, and I was able to get some Friday 6 PM tickets like two days before. I remember ads that literally were saying “tickets still available”, like I remember concerns that the premiere weekend wouldn’t be gigantic since people figured it would be sold out so they wouldn’t go (which I think went down, ironically, with Galaxy’s Edge). If we didn’t have assigned seating, we probably would’ve had lines for TFA at least.

I really don’t want to imagine waiting in lines for Endgame. At least the digital battle was kinda fun, but in a pre-assigned seats world? No thanks.

 

See, I'm not exactly sure it was about getting trouble getting in. If it was, I think people would just simply go to a less popular theater. I think it has way more to do with the fact that people just wanted to. They just wanted to be there first. To the point where they were willing to spend great chunks of their life in line for these movies.

Not just money, money can be replaced, no, they were spending time. Time is the one thing none of us can ever get more of. It's the most valuable thing we have. And, yet, they were willing to spend all this time on the prequels. Even after Episode 1 and 2 were out. And, people were still willing to spend their time waiting for these movies.

Some how, I think this has nothing to do with the lack of assigned seatings.

 

The only battle for me was getting tickets for TFA. I woke up at 5am local time and 90 seconds after release most of them had sold out here. They put more cinemas on for TLJ and TROS, and also release for those was 10am local for some reason.

I happaned to see Isle of Dogs on the same day that Infinity War came out here - I did not want to be a part of that queue. Jeez.

 

But you can't say people wouldn't have just because people didn't have to. Maybe it's true that no one was that excited, but maybe even more people were. Since it wasn't an option we'll never know.

We can know this. In 1999 TPM opened to ~$65 million. Adjusting for inflation from 1999 to 2015, that's a little over $92 million. TFA opened in 2015 to ~$245 million, more than twice as much. That math tells us people were plenty excited.

 

Star Wars: All the Celebrity Cameos in the Sequel Trilogy - IGN

 

Idk, I am terrible at math, but... if what you are saying is true, and the money earned represents how excited people were...

Where exactly were all these other movie's lines of people camping for months? Idk, maybe what you are saying is true, and it does show excitement, or, perhaps, it shows just how overpriced the tickets are now. It seems to me, that if Spider-Man, which came out the same year as Attack Of The Clones, in 2002, made $34,816,302 more than Star Wars Episode 2, then, Spider-Man should have also had huge lines, and loads of camping too. Yet, I don't recall Spider-Man having huge lines, nor tents. A large crowd on opening day, at 4 pm, yes. But, nobody lining up for months.

So, while it is true that the option to buy advance tickets was not an option, it sure didn't seem to cause other movies to have these things. Movies that came out at around the same time, which made more money. But, perhaps I am wrong, and you are right. So, where are the tents for Spider-Man, along with these other movies, like Avatar, and the Dark Knight? Movies that came out around the same time as the Prequels, which made more money than them. Surely these movies too, must have these lines of tents, right? People waiting for months to see these movies on opening night.

 

Wait are we arguing about standing in lines when digital sales and assigned seats exist? I haven’t see anyone in line at the movie theater in literal years. Only one theater locally still has open seating, and I avoid them for any big movies. That’s a fools game.

I did wait in line for Episode I. But even for the rest of the PT that wasn’t necessary, nor did I. I’m struggling to remember the last time I saw long lines waiting. Part of that is the rise of the multiplex. There are more than enough screens now you really shouldn’t be waiting even Pre digital sales and assigned seats.

 

Look, man, I slept in a tent one night for TPM tickets. One. Night. Anyone who camped out for months has an unhealthy relationship with their fandom and I don't believe it was ever more than a dozen or so people in total that pulled the stunt. Society would grind to a halt if people took months out of their careers and their families to buy some fucking movie tickets. It's not something you should want to see happen, and it's not even something the people who did it needed to do. It's an extreme.

Actual excitement for a movie is how many people show up. That's the box office. Adjusting for inflation is how you even out the cost of a ticket. It's not a perfect system, but it's the best we have.

 

Rewatched TLJ, so random thoughts:

• The movie definitely looks beautiful, I just wish there was more to the pretty pictures.
• The "comedy" is just jarring.
• Luke's character arc is still poorly done. I get the angle Ryan was going, but he really doesn't execute it well at all.
• The Rey VS Luke stick fight is actually pretty fun, but Luke losing was bullshit.
• Daisy Ridley does a bad job as Rey in this movie, she really just is not believable in any situation.
• By contrast, Adam Driver is easily the best part of this movie and trilogy, his talent is breathtaking.
• Holdo's bitchiness still makes no sense to this day.

 

I found this to be an interesting listen. Does bring up potential for more droid characters and stories in the future.

 

What's Darth Vader doing on Tattooine? After all, he doesn't like sand, as it's coarse, rough, irritating, and it gets everywhere.

 

I get Holdo being controversial, but part of it is that we as an audience know Poe, but not Holdo. I find Poe frustrating in TLJ because as much as I want to tell the folks that answer to me everything, sometimes I can't. I'm lucky they seem to trust me, but at other places I have had folks ask me something, get impatient I can't say yet, and go off on their own and screw up something that was in the works. Frustrating as hell, and as such I have some sympathy for her. I've also been Poe, where I'm begging for information, get frustrated, go off and handle things myself, and never once has it worked out.

 

That looks bizarre and fun, I’m eager to give it a try. They should’ve saved the clips from what’s clearly the final battle out of the ads. But also cool that it’s using the World Between Worlds from Rebels.

 

it's just not the same without Bea Arthur...