Mike sends in a report on his first midnight screening of a Star Wars film, where the turnout was bigger than anyone in Macon expected:

I saw the movie at the Macon AmStar 16 Cinema. I didn't arrive until 11, though I'd planned to be there earlier (traffic snarl). Obviously, I already had a ticket, and it appeared several thousand other people did, as well. I heard many surprised people as I made my way to the end of the roughly 3-block line; surprised, because they all felt Macon wouldn't have that large of a Star Wars turn out.

Even though they sold the tickets, the theatre was taken off-guard, also. I got in line at 11:00pm, and I got into my seat at about 12:10am or so. The theatre had announced the show wouldn't start until everyone was in their appointed theatres and seated. Let me point out that this announcement seemed to have been made to those of us outside, because those already inside when I got in were getting antsy as 12:01 came and went. A guy next to me joked that they'd meant 12:01 Central time, and a bunch of people laughed, but that's how it worked out. The show started (after trailers) right at 1:00am.

I won't review the film again for you, but we had a nice clean copy, the audio was superb, and there were no technical malfunctions. With this being my first midnight event for any of the films, I have to say it was well done. Yeah, it started a little late, but other than some individual grumblings, the crowd took it in stride.

One funny note: The theatre, as I imagine many do, runs advertising slides while people are still coming in. At one point, there was a long delay between slides. The blank screen. The quiet theatre. "Here it comes" we thought. When the next slide came up, there was a massive "BOOOO!!" that brought the usher running in to see what had happened. Even as people were "boooing" though, laughter was spreading through the theatre.

All in all, I'd rate it as a fun evening, and the only thing I would have done differently would be to get there earlier, but the theatre made sure those of us who, for whatever reasons didn't get there as early as we could have, didn't miss out on anything.

Obviously, the Force is stronger in Macon that anyone could have possibly imagined...


Update:

William adds:

The reason the event at Macon Amstar was so big was because The Macon Clones, hosted a Charity event to benefit the American Cancer Society.

This event got alot of publicity in the news around Middle Georgia. I myself waited in line the longest for 45 hours.

We, The Macon Clones, would like to thank everyone for the donations and the turnout. It was great fun and we enjoyed hosting the event.