Pre-sale tickets for Star Wars: The Force Awakens have only recently gone on sale but are already shattering records and crashing websites. The last movie to even come close to such sale highs was The Hunger Games in 2012.
Fandango received seven times its typical traffic when the tickets became available, and they have “already sold eight times as many tickets as we did on the first day of sales for the previous holder”. The company released a statement, saying:
This is an extraordinary time for the industry, which experienced unprecedented ticket demand last night. Movie theatres are continually adding new show times on Fandango to meet the phenomenal demand. The enthusiasm for this year’s most anticipated movie is out of this world and we expect it to continue all the way to its debut on December 18.
AMC Theatres also reported record breaking sales, reporting that their single-day advanced ticket record was broken over 10 times, selling more than 1,000 shows within 12 hours. Movietickets.com also reported a record amount of traffic, three times higher than at any other point in their history. IMAX reported $6.5 million in ticket sales in one day to less than 400 screens.
In fact, the traffic was so high and so unexpected that many theatres and ticket retailers experienced server crashes, preventing fans from obtaining tickets after they should have been available. One retailer, Alamo Drafthouse, issued an apology for the technological error, being the first theatre or industry company to do so.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens in theatres on December 18.
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