Prep time for Serenity Screening

zortified posted passed on some info from a friend who works for a theater after the first screening. The info has been right on the money so far. If everything holds true, the next set of tickets should go on sale "July 14" for a July 28 screening.



Okay, so I put "July 14" in quotes because there are some things you need to know about the ticket buying process. Note: I don't know anything for sure. I just know how things went for the 2nd and 3rd screenings and am passing on what I learned.

The Important Sites

Can't Stop the Signal - this is where the list of theaters will be with direct links to the movie ticket sellers. Note that each theater has its on relationship with an online ticket seller. So if it says that the tickets for the theater you want will be on Fandango, you're not going to find it on MovieTickets.

Also note that when you click that direct link the first time (or the 1000th) it may say nothing about Serenity tickets - it's the right place, keep refreshing. (more about this below in the buying tickets section) ETA: Both wolfling and priscellie highly recommend URLy Warning or a program like it. Essentially, it watches a webpage and gives you an alert when it changes.

Browncoats Message Board - This is associated with the official movie site and when it says Joss Whedon is posting, Joss is posting. This is where Joss has made the other ticket announcements and will probably make the next one, the evening of the July 13. You need to be a member to read the messages. Signing up is easy and has not resulted in spam.

LJ's of interest

_the_firefly_ and fireflyfans - these are two general communities and are relatively low volume except when the tickets are on sale and just after the screenings. Like the Browncoats forums, there will be a bunch of folks that will post as the various cities come on line to sell their tickets.

The ticket buying process.

Each individual theater loads their movies and showings up on Fandango or MovieTicket themselves -- like you loading up your E-bay stuff for an auction. Some of them keep with the spirit of the thing and put their tickets up at midnight on the airing date (Toronto), others put tickets up the next morning, same damn time they do it everyday (Elizabeth). And more importantly, some do it in advance by up to a week (Los Angeles and Houston). Try calling the theater and asking if they have an advanced screening of Serenity on July 28 - the person on the other end of the phone may tell you they have no info, but sometimes you'll get important info, like when they'll be available. For instance, when I called Elizabeth at 12:20am during the last ticket frenzy, the woman on the phone told me the tickets wouldn't go on sale until after 9am - thus allowing me to get some sleep.

The online ticket sellers let you buy up to 99 tickets at once, and thus the problem with scalpers. I'd urge you if you're thinking about picking up a couple of extra tickets to do so, if you get into the site and can buy them, you'll probably only get one shot. If you end up with an extra or two, you can hook up on any of those communities mentioned and find someone who would be more than happy to buy your extra ticket. Or you could take along a non-Firefly fan and see what they think of the movie going in cold. One of the biggest questions is how accessible is this movie to people that don't know the series.

So, some of you in Texas and California are thinking - doesn't that mean that tickets could be on sale *right now* in LA and Houston. Why yes they might. Here's what to do

-Go to Cantstopthesignal and find the theater that showed the movie last time; it will probably do so again.
-Get the theater info and the name of their online vendor
Example

Los Angeles
Jurupa
8032 Limonite Avenue
Riverside, CA 92509
Fandango

-Get to that theater's page on the online seller's site and attempt to set the date to the date of the screening - July 28. If you can get there, the tickets may be available. It will be listed as Serenity, but may be listed as "Advanced Preview" with no other information.
-As soon as you can find it on the site, you can buy it.

er... LA was not on sale as of 10:26am EDT, today ;-)

In the meantime, if you know what theater you're targeting, then it would be a good idea to register with the appropriate online vendor and enter in your credit card info, so you aren't hassling with that when you go to buy the tickets. *But keep in mind that most theaters require you to use that same card to go pick up the tickets, so use a credit card you can take to the theater.

Which leads us to our next topic,

Screwy things that happen when you go to buy/pick up tickets.

Fandango and company are not equipped really well for the rush of people trying to buy tickets all at once. During the sale of the second screening, they asked Joss and company to pull the links for Cantstopthesignal because their sites were getting overwhelmed. *Note: Bookmark the actual link page in case it gets pulled temporarily from Cantstopthesignal. As a result, more than a few people thought they bought tickets, but the order never processed.

-Wait for a confirmation page and print it

-Fandango sends a confirmation e-mail, but MovieTicket doesn't (which sucks and does not add to peace of mind) doesn't sometimes? I did not get a confirmation for Neshaminy during the second screening. Other people are reporting in the comments that they did receive confirmations from MovieTicket. All the more reason to:

-Check your credit card and make sure charges go through from the online vendor - which kind of works, my credit card can take a few days to post charges.

If you're traveling a long way to the theater, you definitely want to do a few checks because nothing would suck more than to be all revved up after driving hours to get there and not have any tickets. You can call the theater and give them your credit card number over the phone and they can check to see if you have tickets reserved.

Each theater has it's own system of picking up tickets. Almost all demand you use the credit card you made the transaction with to get the tickets (Elizabeth, Neshaminy). Some (Boston) will let you scan a barcode at a machine to get tickets. Obviously the Boston tickets are more easily transferred among fans - buyer beware. This also makes Boston a huge target for scalpers - rumor has it that many of the 3rd Boston screening tickets went to someone in Nebraska because he could easily resell the tickets on Ebay without leaving his house.

What about new theaters
Sorry. I don't have any clues about it. You could try some hunting and pecking in Fandango and MovieTicket to see if a local theater is having an Advance Screening on the 28th, but it's a long shot.

The good news is that they keep adding and not taking away. All the theaters that have had previous screenings have continued with all the screenings. The other good news is that I haven't heard leaks about which new theaters will be added - this means that you've got an equal shot with everyone else for getting tickets to a newly announced theater (except maybe LA which was sold out a week before the last screening).

Good luck to the folks in the UK and Australia - I've heard that a UK screening may be coming, but have no other details.

And finally

A lot of getting tickets is about being online at the right time. I've gotten lucky. I was at work when Elizabeth went on sale and I happened to have five minutes to check Fandango between meetings.

I won't be competing for tickets at the next screening - I don't want to wait until September to see the movie again, but I want everyone to get a shot at seeing it once in a room full of fans, because there is absolutely nothing like it. (Peeps I have met in RL should e-mail me if you want to try and work out something where I help watch the sales in Elizabeth for you.)

If you do score tickets, see if you can track down the local Browncoats and make a night of if. In Toronto they club reserved space in a nearby restaurant, so they could get together before the screening. In Neshaminy there's a ton of restaurants around the mall and folks got together in smaller groups.

--I'm sure I haven't heard all the stories and have missed some useful tips. Add them to the comments folks and help your fellow Browncoats.