It appears that at least for the next few weeks, all advance purchases of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey movie tickets on Fandango will earn purchasers a free song download. The song will be Howard Shore’s “The Adventure Begins” and once you make your purchase, they will be sending you an electronic coupon to download the song. Every transaction will trigger this free download, until November 30. So buy early, and collect your song. And make sure you jump on our Message boards (TORn Moots) to talk about what theater you will be going to and what format you will be seeing, and most importantly, will you be in costume. Scan our Line Party pages, find one to join, or create one of your own.
Category: Meet Ups
It is November 7 and in a few short hours, tickets will be on sale for most of the theaters in the US and Canada that will be showing The Hobbit. This will include many of the Regal and AMC theaters we’ve recently reported on that will screen the film in 48fps. The Trilogy screenings the weekend before The Hobbit opens are also on sale today. Before you go and buy tickets to see The Hobbit, take a look at our Line Party page and see if there is one near you. And if there is no existing Line Party near you, feel free to start one at whichever theater you buy your tickets at. Right now, there are some 40+ Line Parties, including a party in Bulgaria, Curucao, Mexico, Helsinki and Auckland, as well as across the US. Hey Canada and Australia, whats up with NO Line Parties? TORn staffers are leading parties in Boston, Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Hollywood, Allentown, Irvine and other locations, but anyone can host a Line Party. So click on the Community button, select the Line Party option and get to planning your own little shindig. All you really need to know is the actual address of the theater to get it pinned onto the Line Party map. [Line Parties]
Update from Dom Post: Sir Peter Jackson has stepped in to ensure Hobbit fans who fell victim to an Embassy Theatre ticketing error see the movie ”possibly even a minute or two before anyone else”. Tolkien Society New Zealand chapter founder Jack Machiela was one of about 60 people who queued outside the Wellington cinema to be among the first in the world to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on The Embassy’s giant screen when public screenings begin at midnight on December 12. But when the ticket office opened, all the tickets to the first screening on the big screen had been snapped up online. [Read more] [Discuss]
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The Embassy Theatre in Wellington opened the box office at midnight last night to sell Hobbit first-screening tickets – but unfortunately midnight screening tickets went onsale online a few minutes before the box office opened, and no tickets were set aside for sale to fans who were waiting. Seats were sold out before most people there could get to the head of the queue. I was there, and can vouch for the fact that people who had waited there for hours were furious and very disappointed. The DominionPost has a full report.
Given the box office debacle, it’s a good thing we had a visit from the cheerful Barry and his son from Stansborough Mill,who were showing off their loom-woven woollen cloaks and new Gandalf scarf (with mithril!) They’re 2.5 metres of sparkly goodness.
Fantastic news from Jack Machiela, who runs the Tolkien Society’s Wellington branch. “Wellington NZ is having a Hobbit Line party TOMORROW night! The Embassy Theatre has agreed to open the Box Office line for us at Midnight 12:01am on EARLY Wednesday morning, so we’re all turning up at 11:30pm tomorrow night. Hopefully people will turn up in costumes as well… :)”
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Jack from Welly-moot, Wellington’s Tolkien group, has been in touch with us, and it looks like Wellington may have a Line Party coming up sooner than you’d expect – next week, in fact! Here’s what Jack says:
‘We held Welly-moot (the meeting of Wellington’s Tolkien enthusiasts) at the Embassy Theatre yesterday. I spoke to the Elly, the manager there, and asked her when Hobbit tickets to the December 13th opening would be available. She said at 12:01am Nov 7th (online), and 09:00am next morning (physical box office). I asked her if she would consider opening the physical box office at midnight as well, and she said she’d consider it IF she got enough demand for it.
So: if you are in Wellington and you want to join fellow fans to stand in line for tickets, please send an email to Elly, the manager of Wellington’s Embassy Theatre, at “manager@deluxe.co.nz” with a subject of “Please open the Box Office at 12:01am, Nov 7th for Hobbit Tickets!”. If the box office opens, I plan to be there on the night – let’s see how many others we can get to join us!’
There you have it, Wellington fans – a call to arms! It goes without saying, please be nice when you email Elly at the Embassy – we wish you luck in getting the first Line Party going! Register your interest also at our Line Party page – and remember, wherever in the world you are, you can join a Line Party or start your own! Just join our Line Party community!
TheOneRing.net has a long tradition of using digital means to bring like-minded friends together in real life. Internet friendships are even better when shared over a table of drink and food or a game, discussion or popcorn and soda. The Line Party tradition goes back to the early days of the site and the efforts have cemented life-long friendships. By the time The Return of the King rolled around, over 10,000 people signed up and enjoyed Line Party activities around the globe with many more enjoying the celebrations in person without ever signing up. The largest Line Party had over 1,200 participants but it was not the only one to reach beyond 1,000.
I personally have made many friends from Line Party efforts both at my local line and from people around the globe. A big, widespread effort from fellow fans also demonstrates that we aren’t just an online community but a real-world community that joins with others in celebrating the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Since Fellowship of the Ring hit theaters, users and staff at TORn have celebrated each Middle-earth film by lining up in our local neighborhoods. We even printed a t-shirt declaring: “One does not simply walk into theaters, there are geeks there that do not sleep,” long before it was an internet meme. So join a line and if there isn’t one to join, start one! Here at TheOneRing, we have done this before and, we might be good at it. We will help and support as we are able. What follows is a guide of the purpose and way to have a line party. We wish you the best success and look forward to celebrating a new journey into Middle-earth. (Line Party page.) Continue reading “Line Party 101: How to host or sign up for a Hobbit premiere viewing near you”