Presales for Star Wars: The Force Awakens four times that of the final Twilight and Harry Potter films
ON the same day that a new trailer dropped, advance ticket sales for Star Wars: The Force Awakens have gone into hyperdrive.
STAR Wars: The Force Awakens is already living up to its reputation as the most eagerly anticipated movie in history, with enraptured fans moving at light speed to snap up tickets nearly two months out from its release date of December 17.
When tickets went on sale at 8am today, the movie smashed all records at the Event Cinema chain, shifting 1200 in the first minute, 10,000 in the first ten minutes and 30,000 (and counting) in less than a day.
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That’s around four times as many as the first day of presales for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2 (7726 tickets) and Harry Potter and The Deathly Hollows Part 2 (7258 tickets).
The Avengers managed 26, 988 tickets in its entire presales period — Star Wars: The Force Awakens beat that in four hours.
“We anticipated the ticket sales for Star Wars: The Force Awakens to break records, however the
pace in which this film has achieved this is remarkable,” said David Seargeant, Group Managing
Director AHL, which owns Event Cinemas.
“It is great to see the fans really embracing the latest instalment of the Star Wars franchise and in particular purchasing tickets to the midnight screenings.”
Today’s on-sale date also coincided with the release of the official trailer to the new movie, directed by JJ Abrams, which picks up the story 30 years after the events of Return Of the Jedi and reunites original cast members Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, along with new faces Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver and Oscar Isaac.
The trailer has already been viewed more than 340,000 times on YouTube, with an overwhelmingly positive response.