Some fans dressed up as storm troopers, Chewbacca, Darth Vader and more.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) – After months of secrecy and anticipation, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is thrilling fans and theater owners alike.
Kelly Andrews, who wears her love of “Star Wars” on her skin in the form of Yoda and R2-D2 tattoos, bought tickets in October for the first showing at Hollywood’s classic TCL Chinese Theatre, where the original “Star Wars” premiered in 1977.
“Now, it’s so much easier”.
Texas Tech student Holly Thomas was the first person to line up to get the best seat for the first showing of Star Wars tonight at Tinseltown.
“I know it can happen anywhere or anytime but I have faith in the human race”, said John Marion. “Maybe he’s back home on Tatooine”. And it introduces new heroes fighting forces of evil in the galaxy. Star Wars: The Force Awakens has already received rave reviews by critics around the world. It includes breaking news, trailers, Star Wars-themed weather forecasts, Emojis, animated GIFs and lots more. Some theaters banned costumes for security reasons. A sign in the window outlined the rules: no face coverings, no face paint, no capes, no cloaks, no simulated weapons.
Chris Bidwell, a manager at Bow Tie Cinemas, said the rule was in place to make sure everyone in the theater is safe and comfortable.
Eight out of the nine screens were used to show the movie and some merchandise was sold, such as Stormtrooper 3D glasses, posters and drinking straws with new character BB-8 droid on them.
“We haven’t been able to keep them in stock”, Samantha Irons, of Costumes and Beyond, said. “We’ve been preparing for this for awhile and have had big movies in the past so we’re ready”. Once again it beat out Deathly Hallows, Part 2 which made $43.5 million in Thursday night pre shows in July 2011. I guess we’ll see.
Caption + Chris Geer poses for a photo in front of the Star Wars movie poster with his son Ethan during opening night of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” at Century Theatre in Boulder, Colo., Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015. Not only that, it has blasted its way to No. 1 in each nation, cashing in a whopping $14.1M dollars on the first day at the box office ahead of the opening weekend.
Shockingly, even with its hundreds of product tie-ins Disney did not release an official Force Awakens app, but they did release the entire soundtrack to iTunes.
“We estimate Star Wars consumer products sales of $6 billion in FY16, double the sales when Disney acquired Lucas in 2012”, Borst wrote Tuesday in a client note titled “May the Mouse Be With You”.
The couple had purchased their tickets weeks in advance.
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By noon, tickets to early shows sold out.
