'Twilight' sells out late-night screenings

By Yvonne Villarreal

The Los Angeles Times

HOLLYWOOD — They'd given much thought to how they would see it — some had been planning for months — but they did not imagine this kind of pandemonium. They waited in the long line outside the Universal CityWalk Cinemas, staring into the eyes of the movie ticket ushers, and they looked back at them frightened. Surely, it was a good way to watch a movie. At midnight. With other fans.

Around 11:30 p.m., the ushers smiled in a welcoming way as they finally motioned moviegoers into the theater for midnight showings of "Twilight."

In a sight played out at theaters across Southern California, hundreds of fans came wearing "Twilight" T-shirts — some homemade with phrases like "Suck my blood, Edward" or "Hunt me, Edward" scrawled with black marker. A few sported "I kissed a vampire and I liked it" buttons on caps and purses; others toted around copies of the bulky books, cramming until the lights dimmed inside the theater; and then there were the few trying to reduce the saliva spillage that so often occurs when wearing fake fangs.

The Summit Entertainment film sold out hundreds of performances weeks before its Friday opening. Meanwhile, Fandango sold out 1,000-plus for Thursday midnight shows. As of early Friday morning, the online ticket retailer had been selling five "Twilight" tickets per second, said spokesman Harry Medved.

"Our robust ticket sales are a bit of a surprise considering the film is a sweet little love story, not a studio tent-pole," Medved said. "These are the kind of ticket sales you expect for a big special-effects movie, but it's the chemistry between Edward and Bella that's clearly what is propelling the advance ticket sales."

Fans unable to score tickets to the midnight showings — and even those who just wanted to relive the experience — planned to miss work or school Friday to watch a few hours of vampire romance. And one teacher, who loves the book as much as her students, suggested catching a matinee rather than ditching school.

"We talked about that in class the other day," said Carla Deleon, 23, a sixth-grade teacher at Frank E. Woodruff Elementary School in Bellflower, who bought tickets to the 12:30 a.m. showing online about two weeks ago. "It would be kind of a bad day to be absent at our school. There's testing on Friday. It won't be a big deal if they see it after school. It will be the same movie."

The film, directed by Catherine Hardwicke ("Thirteen," ''Lords of Dogtown"), is based on the best-selling young-adult novel written by Stephenie Meyer. "Twilight," the first book in the four-part series, introduces us to Bella Swan, a 17-year-old who moves to Forks, Wash., and her evolving romance with classmate Edward Cullen, who she discovers is a vampire.

Despite the estrogen-charged mob outside the theater, the female-to-male ratio wasn't as high as some were suspecting. Sure, some of the males in line were dragged by girlfriends or sisters — as evidenced by the many stoic faces in the crowd — but there were also guys who willingly had been recruited into the "Twilight" cult.

"My girlfriend started reading them, and I kind of wanted to know what the big deal was," said Ola Tripp, 18, a student at California State University, Northridge. "Now I'm addicted. I feel better seeing other guys here."