Rogue One presales nearly take down Fandango

By Esther Zuckerman  |  November 28, 2016 | 8:15pm
Aux Features Film

The rush on Rogue One tickets—which went on sale last night—crippled Fandango, sending eager fans into a Minion-coated “wait room“ as they tried to make plans to see the first Star Wars spinoff movie. The presale began at 12:01 a.m. EST Monday, according to Deadline, and the number of people trying to buy tickets forced Fandango to issue the following statement:

That online queue looked something like this:

The delays resulted in frustrated Twitter comments—not a good look for the company, which had similar issues when tickets for The Force Awakens became available for purchase. Some even bragged about circumventing Fandango’s services in favor of MovieTickets.com or Atom Tickets.

Thank you, @atomtickets for being there when the @Fandango server crashed. Got 6 tickets to #RogueOne

— Eunice Pak (@eunice_pak) November 28, 2016

Rogue One isn’t expected to make The Force Awakens-level bucks in its opening weekend, and perhaps the fact that Fandango’s competitors weren’t hobbled is an indicator of that. However, it’s still predicted to make a lot of money:The Hollywood Reporter noted last week that it is expected to make over $130 million in its opening weekend. That’s a lot less than The Force Awakens’ $248 million, but it still would be the second-largest December debut of all time. Perhaps it’s the promise of Vader?

 
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