Lots of people are on the road right now, heading to Wellington for the Premiere, so we figured they wouldn’t really be in a position to book a party ticket ahead of time very easily. So we’re going to have one of those flash EFTPOS machines so you can pay at the door. It accepts credit cards too – how convenient is that?
There is something pretty special about banding together with fans in your area and fans world-wide to experience The Hobbit collectively. Following the tradition of Line Party events held a decade ago, our shirt designer Chris Lyons put together a shirt for TheOneRing.net’s fourth party experience. Modeled after a concert tour shirt while still celebrating dragons and dwarves, we want to make this one available to as many attendees as possible. Following tradition, this is our LP4 shirt, following our LP3 shirts from 2003 that we still get requests for and that some members of our staff rarely take off. (We are really hoping they will replace them with these newer, cleaner ones.) The city names on the back will be replaced with actual Line Party cities (join or start a line today!) and we would like to add a corporate sponsor as well. In fact, contact us if you would like to get your brand out to the most die hard fans and have it worn around for a good, solid decade. Our hope is to make these shirts extra affordable and ship in time to wear to the December 13th midnight screenings across the land.
If you are familiar with Line Parties, we have a primer (Line Party 101) to give you the basic info on how to start or participate in an event near you. In 2003, with the momentum of three LOTR films, our line party organization reached well over 10,000 sign ups which usually represents only a small fraction of those actually attending. We know of people attending events in 2012 that have purchased 20 tickets but with only one sign up. We supported the most active lines with gifts or items from corporations or individuals as the opportunity arose. The largest lines, in Utah and Arizona, numbered more than 1,000 people and brought great costumes and media attention with them.
2001 was ‘The Fellowship of the Line’
2002 featured ‘2002 Towers’
and 2003 was LP3: The Return of the Line. We also declared, on a shirt and way before it was an internet meme, “One does not simply walk into theaters, there are geeks there that do not sleep.”
In fact the line party movement shares a common theme with Star Wars fandom, known for its weeks-long commitment to camping out and waiting in lines to be the first to see new installments of that franchise. Keep your eyes peeled for these to go on sale and thanks for all of your support. Join today!
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.
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.
Barry from Stansborough, modelling cloaks and scarves for the line partyJack and Alex Machiela, of the Tolkien Society, at line party before learning there were no tickets
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… :)”