"Dark Knight" tickets: PURCHASED!!!...a week later

Warner Bros. decided at the last minute over a week ago to push advanced tickets on sale for the midnight show of "The Dark Knight" at Arclight's The Dome (pictured left) to a week after the original month-out from release date.

I was at New Wave then and had heard that pretty much everyone out on the producer's floor, as well as in the edit bays, were waiting with baited breath for the 'on sale now' link to turn over on the Arclight site. It never happened.

I finally decided to call The Arclight that afternoon, Friday, June 20, to see when that day they might be on sale. I was told about Warner Bros. decision. So this past Friday I managed to hit ground zero for tickets going on sale right, dead center.

I knew this would be the biggest ticket selling movie event of the year. And traditionally The Arclight has put these high profile movie tickets on sale four weeks out from the release date; they did it for "Iron Man", "Indiana Jones", and "The Incredible Hulk". There was never a specific time on those Fridays, just sometime between 8:30 and 11:30am. With "Dark Knight" I had a sneaking suspicion they'd maybe jump that time a little, back to right after midnight. Thank God I took that to heart because right around 12:15am PST, as I refreshed the Arclight site for the fourth time, the title "Dark Knight" moved from the columns 'on sale soon' to 'on sale now'. However when I clicked on the link it took me to the "Dark Knight" ticket buying page and the words 'coming soon'. Clearly I was there right at the moment they were changing the web site. Wow! Suddenly a few moments later the times came up for the midnight show and every show time following for 24 hours straight through the weekend.

My hands jumped on the keyboard as I feverishly selected the number of tickets I wanted to buy. The floor plan came up with a whoosh, showing that twenty seats had already been sold in just a microsecond. Shit! Hurry up! You get four minutes to buy tickets before they're released back into the system. I quickly selected my favorite seats (THANK GOD!) and clicked enter. The confirmation came up and my e-mail went 'ding!' with the delivered tickets. But that wasn't the end of it. I knew I needed to go back in and buy tickets for my second viewing a few days later during the weekend. Those were easier to buy since everyone was hammering the midnight show.

Purchased, done, lean back, sigh of relief, whew!

I was up for a little longer, the time now being past 1am. Tickets had now been on sale for well over an hour. Just for giggles I went back in to see how things were filling up for the midnight show. By 1:30am two thirds of the auditorium, which seats over 800 people, was sold. Friday morning I went in again and only saw around fifteen seats left. When I got to work the entire house was sold out!

All I have to say is Thank God I was there at the exact moment they were changing the website. Mainly because there are a prime couple of rows in the middle of the theater that are a perfect and comfortable distance for picture and sound. And just about everyone heads right for that section. This is why I needed to move very fast. Sure I could have gotten a seat anywhere, even if I'd waited until the morning. But MY rows and seats?! It was going to be close!

I've said it so many times in the past but I'll say it again: Thank God for reserved seating Because you know if this had opened at Mann's Chinese, Warner's go to premiere theater where it's first come, first serve, there would have been a line going around the block twice more than a month in advance.

Now I can relax. The release of "The Dark Knight" will be the beginning of that glorious week in San Diego at Comic-Con starting just a couple of days later. Yay, yay, and yay!