Trilogy Tuesday Reports – Part One!
The server has been under seige for the past 48 hours, I swear! In any case, we are slowly trundling along, posting thing as and when we have time. Here’s a bunch more Trilogy Tuesday reports for everyone to read. Thanks to everyone who has been writing in!
Expect more soon, and hopefully some pictures as well!
Ringer Jennifer, Washington DC
After the great ticket debacle in DC, I was expecting Trilogy Tuesday in DC to be similarly chaotic and frustrating. Rumor had it that because tickets had been sold individually for each movie rather than as a package we would be required to exit the theatre and line up anew for each film. The Uptown holds 800+, so needless to say that would have been disastrous.
Things went wonderfully. The highest compliments must go to the Uptown’s management and staff, who clearly thought about their situation and came up with a simple and easy solution. They had buttons bearing the words “Trilogy Tuesday” which they gave to those of us with tickets for all three shows. That button, along with our three ticket stubs, allowed us to stay in the theatre between each showing, keeping our seats, and to exit and enter the theatre during the breaks to get food, drink, etc. They even brought in a cart full of sandwiches and other lunch-type foods between FOTR and TTT.
We also got a freebie collectible from Sideshow Weta, three film cells, one from each of the movies, set in a lovely grey frame decorated with dwarven, elven, and Gondorian emblems. Whoever was responsible for this incredibly nice thank-you to the fans, thank you!
And the movies, of course, were fabulous. The Uptown only has one screen, but it’s curved, huge, and perfectly proportioned for wide screen. I was up in the balcony, where there is no such thing as a bad seat. We had no problems with the projection or anything else, and except for the fans booing every advertisement and trailer that came between us and “Return of the King” there was nothing but cheers for the theatre management and the films. Truly a party of special magnificence.
Ringer Brielle, Unknown Location
I had planned to go line up for this incredible event at 6:30am. Unfortunately, certain circumstances prevented me from doing so. I was very disappointed, but at 10:30 I made my way into the theatre. As I walked in the usher took my ticket, ripped it *carefully*, stamped it, stamped my hand, and gave me a special gift! It was a Film Frame Collectible by Sideshow Weta! It’s basically a plaque with three unique and authentic film strips in it! I was very excited!
When I got into the theatre all the seats in the middle front section were taken, but I found a group of four seats together at a little to the right of where I wanted to be, but still great seats. So I set down my coat on the other three seats and waited for my friends to arrive. At 12:30 the manager announced that we could only hold seats until 1:00…but that was okay because my friends had arrived already!
The atmosphere in the room was incredible! Everyone was quite friendly. Several people were dressed up, but not as many as a I was expecting. Before the movie started, a local tv station came to cover the event. They interviewed lots of people and stayed for about half an hour! When the movies began everyone cheered and clapped. Each movie got a hearty round of applause at the end. People laughed at the right places and it was just so obvious that they were excited to be there!
There were no previews before The Return of the King was shown which I was quite thankful for, because I think it would have wrecked the atmosphere a bit. Several times during the movie the whole audience burst into applause at the heroic acts of the characters. I found myself bawling from quite early on in the movie. 🙂 It was just so powerful.
Well, that’s all for my report. I can’t wait to see it again!
Ringer ShelaghC, Chicago
The folks running the house at this AMC were collectively one class act.
The first thing you got when you handed in your TrilTues ticket was a souvenir lanyard to hang around your neck – along with an explanation that it would afford you a discount on most of the concessions and in and out privileges all day long. They also were giving free refills on large sodas and popcorn.
The management was willing to let people keep their movie tickets as additional souvenirs (so long as management could write a note on the back of the ticket indicating you’d already received your lanyard).
There was a film crew handy and an emcee for the day and they stuck it out with us all the way through.
The doors were opened at 10:15 for seating rather than the original 11:00 stated. While they did play all the regular promos (though not any trailers) before before and between movies, management was nice enough to turn up the lights and down the sound until right before each movie started.
And after TTT, what must have been a busload of pizza was delivered, free to anyone with a lanyard.
Outside the auditorium, on the first floor of the theatre, a local theatrical troupe, the Free Associates, entertained with snippets of their currently running improvisational parody of LotR “Frodo A Go-Go.”
Theatre crews came in efficiently to clean up between showings. The host of the film crew selected a volunteer from the audience to push the button on the projector to start TTT. However, the same honor for RotK went to the man who was first on line sometime Monday night (around 11:00PM) for the whole trilogy event.
Everyone involved with the theatre seemed either thrilled or amused to be present for our 15 hour party.
All in all one of the greatest movie-going experiences I’ve ever had.
Ringer Dave, Spokane
Amazing…
AMC treated us like family. We were given pizza during the second intermission, a lanurd, the gift from New Line and everyone in the theatre was great. A woman, Karen ?, flew in from Australia and dressed like Eowyn…exactly. The crowd cheered at the right times, stood at the right times although I was a little irritated by those telling us to be quiet – “We missed a line”. The cellphone ringing during FOTR was agreed to be the low point of the night — all in all, wondrous. This had to the best theatre experience I ever had.
Ringer Josh, Kansas
It was one of the greatest experience in my life and it was well worth the wait and the money for the tickets. The movies were outstanding on the big screen and it was great to see the extended editions on the big screen followed by this year’s best picture Return of the King. The way this event was handled made the movies that much better everything went off without a hitch which was very nice.
Despite the cold and having to wait outside for about 2 hours which was shorter than some of the others in line it was great talking to people. Once we got inside and could warm up a little meeting some of my fellow Line Party people was another great thing in a great day. The way that the staff and management handled us was great because they made us feel special by having everything roped off for us, having special concession prices and having great pizza their as well was again another great thing.
The breaks between the movies were nice because then all the fans could talk about what they thought so far and talk about what was coming and the anticipation that went with waiting this whole time. Also, in addition to the great service of the theater staff, I would like to thank New Line for the great gift to help commemorate this greatest of events. I will always have great and fond memories because of the way it was handled by all parties, and being able to spend it with such special people including my dad.
Ringer Noumette, Montreal
I went to Tuesday Trilogy at Paramount in Montreal. I was supposed to go there with 2 friends, one a great fan of LOTR, the other who discovered it through us. Given that I was working, taking my afternoon off, and they didn’t have to work or had no school, I was counting on them to save me a seat. I had already asked one of them when they would turn up at the theatre, and they had replied they would be there early and that yes they would save me a seat.
Turns out, the night before, one of them called me to tell me at what time they would show up. I was already in bed at the time, and hearing that they would show up there like only 2 hours before the movie totally drove me nuts. I was like thinking what on Middle-earth are they thinking??? I started to get nervous. 30 minutes later, another friend called me, to tell me that she had seen ROTK at a mediatic premiere, and that she had just gotten home. Again, she was introduced to LOTR by me, and she calls me her LOTR encyclopedia. She saw both FOTR and TTT with me, so that she could ask me the questions afterwards. And there she is, Monday night, calling me, to ask me question about a movie I had not seen yet, that I had been looking forward to see since like forever. How cruel is that? I almost hung up on her, so much I was frustrated…
Well, I slept barely 4 hours, had to run to work for the morning, wondering why I was even bothering in going there, why not take care of my seat myself. So I went to work, and stayed there only 3 hours instead of the 4 that I had planned on doing.
It felt as if I were on a quest of my own, as if I were on the Caladhras, trying to go over the snow (we had a big snowstorm in Montreal, on Monday), to reach the bus stop before the bus passes by. To my horror, the bus was there before me, and it was about to turn, and I was on the wrong side of the street, and I was like ‘Oh my God!’. The bus driver saw me, saw me struggle, and well, he stopped, and signaled me to come. It felt like I was picked up by Gwaihir, and then dropped again on a mountain of snow, having to dodge filthy Orcs blocking my way on the sidewalk to Paramount.
I arrived at Paramount at around, feeling desperate, because it was 11h15, and I was sure there would be a huge line up. I arrive there, there were 8 people! I was like ‘wow, us Québécois are really reasonable about that? What’s up with that?’ So I wait, chitchat with people there. And then, someone said that there was another line up inside. So I asked someone to keep my spot, and went inside, and sure enough, one of my friends was there waiting. So we both agreed that she’d stay there and I’d stay outside, in case if one door opens before the other. What frustrated me a lot, and lot of the other people who chose to wait outside, sure that the Paramount people were going to open first the door for those who have more merit, that is, those who waited outside… well that’s not what they’ve done!!! I thought it was insulting. Not as insulting as what happened to the people who were hoping to see the 3 movies in Ville Saint-Laurent, organized by Xoanon (remember the rude letter from Alliance Atlantis?), but still, I felt it was a lack of respect towards their patrons. Well, so there we were allowed inside, so we went upstairs, only to find out that there was already a line up of people upstairs, who had been left inside, just a few minutes before we (those who were waiting downstairs) had turned up. Another set back, really…
I sound like I am complaining a lot, but from the moment we finally got in, things started to improve greatly. There were still hardship ahead, like sitting for almost 12 hours, which was hard on some parts of our anatomy, but well, those difficulties were quite all right. As we were giving our tickets to the ushers, there was a manager handing in a gift to each of the attendents. It was from the Sideshow Weta people… It was like a sort of memorial stone, with incrusted in them, 3 stills, with a scene from each of the movies. My friends and I compared them, and we all had different scenes. That was very cool. On mine, I have a scene of Elrond’s Council from FOTR, Helm’s Deep from TTT and Perigrin Took from ROTK. That was a nice gift, very much appreciated. Miraculously, my friends and I managed to sit together, on the very last row, towards the middle.
We ate a bit, and chitchatted with some people. Then FOTR began. Before both FOTR and TTT, when we had trailers from other movies, both time we had the ROTK trailer, which, in the first round, really got people excited. So FOTR began, and it was cool to be able to see the Extended Edition in theatre. I had a bit of a hard time, because I nearly fell asleep thrice!!!!!!! It is not surprising, given that I hadn’t slept much the night before. Anyway, that started me to get nervous. If I was feeling like that, how would I feel during ROTK? Anyway, given that I had seen FOTR like thousands of time, it was ok, as I know it all by heart. That feeling of sleepiness revisited me during TTT, but not too much, as I was busying myself with eating popcorn from my ROTK plastic popcorn container.
During the break between TTT and ROTK, my friend and I went to take a walk to stretch our legs. We spotted line ups for the midnight show of ROTK. We saw a girl with a shirt saying ‘I survived Helm’s Deep’, which really gave us a blast. We were laughing so much, saying that we should make ourselves a ‘I survived LOTR Trilogy Tuesday’ t-shirts, that we had more merit than only surviving Helm’s Deep *lol* We went on with our walk, and saw a friend of ours who was sitting on the ground in one of the line ups. We teased him badly, saying to him that us, we had only 20 minutes to wait before seeing ROTK, and he still had 2h30 to wait. And that we would be in bed by 2h30, and he wouldn’t be in bed before 4h30. Ah, we are cruel friends, indeed!
So after a last trip to the loo, we went back to our seats, and when the lights went out, everybody cheared. There was an effervescence in the room. It was great to be there, and cheer on what we saw, laugh all together, getting scared together, it was fantastic.
All in all, I was very much happy with the movie, yet a bit disappointed by some of the lack of resolution I felt strongly with some of the characters. But well, I know very well that Peter Jackson is making great extended editions that clear up the feeling. I just know that I have still a few more months before seeing that version of the movie. Can’t wait.
One would think that the hardships were done. Well a friend and I took a cab to go back home, and we had an accident. Nothing to upsetting, no one harmed. But well, it caused a bit of delay before I could reach my bed, and say, like Sam, that I had returned home… ah well… that’s life…
Cheers everyone, and for those who haven’t seen ROTK yet… look out for that amazing stunt by Legolas! That was like… woah…
Ringer Elric, Minneapolis
My co-worker, Sarah and myself attended Trilogy Tuesday in Minneapolis (actually Edina, a suburb). We arrived about 10:00 for the noon start time. The line party folks were very well organized by the “Council of El’dina”. Geek Heaven! Each ticket holder got a numbered badge on a string to hang around their neck, plus a costume contest ballot and some sample trading cards from a local comic shop. We were 309 and 310 of 420 total.
We started filing in at 11:00. Everyone was very good about not trying to jump ahead. Three separate checkpoints checked our tickets before we were issued laminated badges and let in the theater. We got 3rd row center, which is a little close for my taste, but the sound was great. FOTR started about 15 minutes late because of long concession lines, but once it started, it was magic. As always, there were little details in FOTR and TTT that I had never caught before. Sarah had never seen the EE versions, so she enjoyed that very much.
For the intermissions, the staff got us 20% discounts at several restaurants, and we were given free concession drinks before ROTK. They also had a silent auction for the official Trilogy Tuesday banner (which was never hung in the theater) and raised $250 for a local charity. The staff was great. Thanks Megastar 16!
After ROTK, I felt completely emotionally drained. What a journey! The real world outside the theater felt alien after being immersed in Middle Earth for almost 11 hours (especially at 1:30 AM when it’s single digits and your car is covered with ice).
I need to see ROTK at least a couple more times. Sitting so close, there were many times when I was so overloaded with imagery that I couldn’t take it all in, particularly during the battle of Pellenor Fields. Unbelievable!
The souvenir film frame was a nice touch. A forever reminder of the day. Thanks PJ for the magic and New Line for the guts and the cash to make it happen.
Ringer K, Columbus
Well folks, WOW, what a day!! You know the films were amazing (and glitch free throughout) but I have to make a comment or two about the fine folks at the Columbus Carmike 15. They did a superb job!
The Columbus Carmike 15 is the city’s newest theatre. It opened the first week of November and everything about it is fresh and new. The theater sat 615 – stadium style – without question the most comfortable theater I ve ever been in that’s saying a lot for 12 hours in a theatre seat! The screen was HUGE – I wouldn’t even venture a guess as to its dimensions. The staff was excellent throughout the evening, even though ticket holders began arriving at 9:00 am.
Between FOTR and TTT Outback Steakhouse catered dinner Sirloin, grilled chicken, salad, drinks OUTSTANDING and no additional charge! They then followed it up between TTT and ROTK with dessert (cheesecake). I know I speak for all 615 of us when I say THANK YOU Outback!!!
The extras included giveaways, drawings and a costume contest. It was ringer heaven. All of this went on in between episodes of the achievement that is Peter Jackson s Lord of the Rings.
Many, many thanks to everyone involved. It was a day none of us will ever forget.
Ringer SMarshall, Unknown Location
I was very happy with how the theater that I went to handled this event. I arrived there at 10:45 and found that they were already letting people in. Sadly, I was one of those people that wasn’t able to purchase tickets when they first went on sale, and ended up getting them off of Ebay (for a very decent price I might add).
So now I was stuck waiting for the seller to arrive with the tickets. Imagine my despair as I watched group after group arrive and walk into the theater. All I could think of was how bad our seats were going to be. Finally, we get our tickets (about 11:30) and begin the long walk to what I was sure was going to be the back row.
But it turns out our theater had a nice little surprise, while they had only sold tickets for two theaters, they opened up four, so that everyone would have enough room during the long day ahead. Ticket holders were allowed their choice of which theater (pick of two, based on original theater number on ticket) they wanted to sit in. I thought that was a very nice touch.
Ringer Darcie, Edmonton, Alberta
Hi, I see you’ve been recieving information about the Trilogy Tuesday event. I thought I’d send in my 2 bits worth of news.
Arriving, I found there was no line up, the poles weren’t even set up, and the doors wide open. The people accepting the tickets, let us in to obtain our seats. As soon as we got inside the theatre…to our dismay, all the seats were taken, with the exception of 1 or 2 here and there. People were just coming in, throwing jackets, pillows, etc, on lots of other seats and claiming them from there own…when there friends hadn’t arrived till just before the first movie started.
This is my only peeve about the whole Trilogy…I feel the doormen, should’ve had a line up and started seating about a half hour before the movie started, that way, those who actually showed up, would be gauranteed seating. Never having the chance to reserve seating with their property.
Nevertheless, I loved the whole experience. It was worth the 12 hours I spent at the theatre, and the 50 dollars for the price of the ticket. I’d do it again…the crowd went wild every time the movies began. All the love seens, and heroics recieved applauds.
They had a contest for best dressed ringer…it was cool, there was 2 eowyn’s, 2 nazguls, 1 frodo, 1 bilbo, and 1 Gandalf, who looked like the real thing and he won a black leather Recliner Sofa and actually got to sit in it during the course of the Trilogy showing. They had a draw for another Recliner. But, everyone walked out a winner. The participants recieved gift certificates (can’t remember what for), and all the movie goers at the end of the ROTK was given a LOTR memento. It was a little stand with 3 screen caps cut from the three LOTR films. All in all, very much enjoyable…aside from my body trying to go to sleep, and me fighting the whole way through.
Ringer Brian, Uptown Theatre, Washington DC
I’m happy to report that after many snafus with tickets at this location, for all of us who held tickets to all three shows in the trilogy it was a tremendous success! The Uptown deserves to be commended for responding to criticisms and fixing the problems. No one was forced to leave the theatre between shows.
They brought in very reasonably priced sandwiches to help feed people between shows. They gave us all Trilogy Tuesday buttons and distributed New Line’s promo gift. And the staff was courteous and helpful.
Plus, with the biggest screen on the East Coast, the films were incredible! A very memorable event. The only nit was that they were probably contractually required to show previews and commercials before Return of the King. Gosh it would have been nice if those had been cut out.
Ringer Rachel, New Orleans
I took my mom to the trilogy yesterday — it was her birthday present. Appropriate, huh? We went to the AMC 20 in Harahan, LA, the New Orleans area showing. We got there at about 10:15 and waited in line until 11:30ish, when they went ahead and let us in. We’d been told on the phone that they wouldn’t let us into the theater until 12:15 but I guess they decided they didn’t want us milling in the lobby, so we were allowed in. We got these really neat passes on lanyards to wear for the day — they netted us discounts on a few concessions, and obviously were our ID for getting into the theater. It’s a great souvenir.
We didn’t get to label our seats as another reportee said they could, and in fact the stated policy was that you could only save seats if somebody from your group was watching them, but that was very well respected. There was a minor dispute about a seat in front of us that was quickly and quietly settled with no apparent hard feelings.
During Fellowship I heard a few cell phone rings (AAAARGH!) but before Two Towers, Robert the announcer (who probably begged for the job, I would have!) reannounced the cell phone policy — off or on silent if you must have it on, duh! — and there were no further rings. This was possibly the best theater crowd I have ever seen. Everybody wanted desperately to be there and to have fun and to not annoy other people. Between shows the theater had staff going up and down picking up trash from people to try to at least keep ahead of the mess, and between Two Towers and Return of the King we got pizza. Considering the number of people there, the pizza was passed out remarkably quickly and smoothly and was very welcome at that point. I’m sure the guy from Papa John’s in charge of the pizza delivery never expected to get a round of applause for being a pizza guy; I think he was amused, as was Robert, who I’m sure never expected applause for working at a theater! I, too, would like to thank everybody at the theater for their hard work on our behalf.
The combination of a great — nay, fabulous — crowd plus the staff who handled everything SO smoothly made for an incredibly fun time. We laughed, we cried, we cheered, we jumped (huge spiders are scary!); during one particular quiet moment in ROTK, you honestly could have heard a pin drop, I don’t think anybody was even breathing.
I’m sure this was one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences. I’m thrilled that I could go, lack of sleep or no lack of sleep!
Ringer Steve, Seattle
Trilogy Tuesday in Seattle, WA was at the Cinerama, a single-screen theater (not a multiplex) that held 808 people. I arrived with my buddy from work at around 7:15 am (we thought we were crazy going so early, but during the drive to the theater we kept hearing live reports on the local radio news talking about long lines, or around the block already, which just made that drive feel like it was taking forever). Fortunately, “around the block” to the news was just from the side door of the theatre down to the corner and around it. So, we got our place in line and we sat in the rain and waited the 4 hours until the doors opened.
I’m not that familiar with this theater, and can’t imagine marathon events are that common, but it felt like this theater new exactly what they were doing. Before the doors opened, they walked the entire length of the line (end to end, about 1 1/2 blocks) announcing what would happen. They would let us in at 11:00, and then at 12:45 they’d give out a card identifying our seat so that it was then reserved as ours for the duration. The first show would go from 1pm to 4:30, the second from 5:15 to 9:00, and the final from 10:00 to 1:30am. They would have $1 hot dogs and nachos, and between the second and third movies they would have free pizza. Finally, they told us that after the third movie they would be giving everyone a gift. (Our current theory is that New Line was funding these discounts and free food as a way of trying to make up for the ticket purchase fiasco – does anyone know for sure).
They did let us in just after 11:00, and I was dismayed to find so many seats already taken when we got in there (this after we had waited 4 hours). After scoping out a couple spots on the main floor, I held them while my friend took a chance run up to the balcony where he found front row seats. Decision time: main floor 4th row (crane our necks for 12 hours) or front row balcony (view that might be slightly blocked by the railing). We chose the balcony, and it ended up being the most excellent seats! (once the curtain opened, the screen was higher and only slightly blocked if we leaned back in the chairs).
There was only one real snag of the event, and that was the passing out of the seat reservation cards. Instead of taking 5 – 10 minutes, we wait 15 minutes, then 30, and us along with many others still didn’t have ours (and the first movie start was being delayed). Turns out some of the staff had accidently dropped the sorted tags, or otherwise tangled the strings (we could wear then around our necks). But give credit to the Seattle crowd. Not any complaints, and myself and a few others jumped up to help sort the tags and quickly finish handing them out. The movie finally started around 1:25pm. But, they just shortened the intermissions a bit and got us back on track.
Once the shows were going, things went nicely. The crowd would cheer at the day’s first sight of popular characters, and again after any spectacular sequences. It was a lot of fun! (addendum: I got to see RotK again this morning as part of a work moral event – talk about a dead crowd). After a slow cooking start, there were plenty of the $1 hot dogs. There seemed to be plenty of pizza (162 large pizzas only cut into eighths instead of traditional tenths, and I think most everyone that wanted were able to get two pieces). A rep from New Line announced what the gift was before the third movie started, and then they even started the last movie 10 minutes early to give time to hand out the gifts afterwards. They just warned that once you got your gift at the door, you would be leaving the theater and your trilogy experience would be over – in other words, no confusion at all – a very smooth operation!
If there are any more movie marathons of any sort to be had, I sure hope the Seattle Cinerama gets to host them!
Steve
P.S. I have yet to identify the cel frame for TT and RotK in my gift, but my FotR frame is of Frodo hiding behind the column with the cave troll looking around it – cool!
Ringer Joe, Indianapolis, Indiana
A little report from the Kerasotes Showplace 16 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Many people woke up that day and headed off to stand in line at Trilogy Tuesday. I stayed in my home and cooked myself breakfast for what I knew would be one of the most exciting days of my life. I arrived around 11 and was given a stamp on the inner part of my wrist that read PLA. I was told that there were two pieces of paper marked and I should take one just in case someone would take my seat and I could verify that I was there first.
Confident in keeping my seat, I headed out to lunch. I arrived back around 1:30 and was told that there were limited popcorn buckets and cups only for Trilogy Tuesday ticket holders. The manager then held a giveaway on who had driven the furthest and who had paid the most for their ticket. Coming in second with $255 the day just kept getting better.
The intermission between the first and second films was 30 minutes and I headed out to my car to get a little nap so I would be good to go for the rest of the day. The Two Towers was again magnificent just as it was a year ago. We had an hour and a half between the second and third film. I got some food and when I came back I had found that they had given away flyers for Weta Workshops.
We then were told that in honor of Trilogy Tuesday that we were going to recieve picture frames with a piece of film strip in it. We were then asked if we were ready for Return of The King and all 300 fans went bezzerk. The film seemed to almost bob up and down but was fixed quickly. It seems all had trouble with the film that day. It was the best. It was great to see all three movies back to back but was sad to see it all end.
I have been counting this moment down for four years and last night I didn’t want it to end. I did my best not to cry during the movie but did catch some tears here and there. I pretty much lost it on the way to my car. I can’t concentrate today and I feel like a piece of me is missing. I just want to thank the actors, the crew, New Line, and Kerasotes for the great day they made it. They truly understood how much it meant.
