'Star Wars' madness hits the Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO & SAN JOSE, Calif. (KTVU) - The galaxy far, far away is spawning Star Wars madness around the Bay Area Thursday morning.
Bay area fans of the science fiction saga began lining up early Thursday morning for the first sold-out evening showings.
While the official domestic release is set for Friday, many theaters in the Bay Area are being allowed to show advanced screenings Thursday night.
One of those theaters is, the IMAX Theater at San Jose’s Tech Museum of Innovation.
Theater employees were at the theater well before 5:00am making preparations for the evening screening.
They expect fans to begin lining by 6:30am Thursday morning to secure the best seats for that screening.
Meanwhile at San Francisco’s Metreon Theater, some die-hard fans are participating in a 21-hour Star Wars marathon.
Beginning at 1:00am Thursday morning they, started watching the first 6 movies in order, leading up to a 7PM showing of the new film “The Force Awakens.”
Employee’s from San Francisco-based Lucasfilm, who helped worked on the film, also attended an advanced screening of the film Wednesday night.
The film is already breaking records before even hitting theaters.
Advanced ticket sales for the film have already surpassed $100 million dollars, which is quadruple the previous record of $25 million set by “Jurassic World” in June.