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GOTHAM -- Possibly the most anticipated movie of 2012, "The Dark Knight Rises," doesn't open until July, but tickets are already selling out.
Tickets selling months in advance for big films is nothing new, but as Cinema Blend.com explains, the way "The Dark Knight Rises" tickets went on sale is very different.
#poll
"Usually when tickets for a huge movie go on sale at online outlets like Fandango, we get a splashy press release from the company or the studio itself, trying to rally the troops to boost those ticket sale numbers months before the movie even opens," wrote Katey Rich of Cinema Blend. "It happened just two days ago, when we got a press release telling us the exact date "Hunger Games" tickets will go on sale in February. And yet you can now buy tickets for the year's most anticipated movie, and no one made any fanfare about it."
/Film.com reported that Fandango quietly started selling midnight tickets in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. But why keep it so low key? The Hollywood Reporter did some digging and found out why these midnight sales were so hushed.
"As it happened, some AMC theater managers in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco decided to poll the fanboys in attendance (of a "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol" IMAX pre-screening) on who was interested in buying midnight tickets to see the Batman pic on July 19. Not surprisingly, the tickets sold out in an instant."
Because of the demand at those theaters Fandango started selling additional midnight tickets and subsequently showings started selling out.
"If you're in New York you're out of luck, since the first showing is already sold out," reported Indie Wire.com.
That trend will likely continue in San Francisco and Los Angeles shortly and across the country when tickets become available.
Tickets have yet to go on sale in Utah and a representative of the Megaplex theaters, Jeff Whipple, says the studio has asked them to hold off on pre-selling IMAX tickets. It sounds like it won't be long before you can get your hands on the hot item locally and you can keep track of when the tickets become available on Megaplex's website.
"The Dark Knight Rises" opens July 20 in IMAX and regular screens. Warner Bros. hopes the final installment of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy will outdo its predecessor, "The Dark Knight," which made over $1 billion worldwide.
