I can understand their doing the special showings of the extended versions in selected theaters only. What I don't think is fair is to be so restrictive on the marathon showing leading up to ROTK. For many of us fans this was going to be the culmination of a series we have waited for our whole lives. It was going to be a once in a life time chance to see the whole trilogy in one run on the big screen, and it was going to be even more exciting because the unveiling of the final piece of the story. However New Line decided that this experience would only be available to practically nobody.

The theater I went to (the only one within 500 miles) that was granted this marathon was also explicitly forbiden to do the marathon run in more than one theater. They explained that they had wanted to run the marathon in three or more theaters in their 17 theater complex, but NewLine explicitly forbade them. They can show the extended films on different days in various theaters but the marathon was for one thater only. The result is that people who camped in tents were turned away. I personally didn't camp out, but I did show up early in the morning and waited in the brisk autumn air.

New Line's Logic in this is baffling! All that could happen by allowing these theaters to do the marathon in more than one thater is for NewLine to make more money, and for more fans to get the experience they were soo looking forward too. Instead, the few tickets are going to be scalped on Ebay bringing money to the scalpers but not to NewLine, and many fans will be dissapointed. (A local radio station interviewed the first man in line who openly said his plans were to sell his tickets on ebay.) There must have been over 1000 people turned away this morning all hoping to get tickets to the marathon run.

I am greatly dissapointed in New Line with this decision. Seeing all three films in sequence on the big screen is how the trilogy is meant to be watched for fans, but for some reason New Line wants less than %.5 of the fans out there to be able to see it this way. I cannot see how it would possibly hurt their box office sales or their marketing to have made this available to every fan willing to make the long run in the theater.

frustratedly yours,

Danny

To Whom It May Concern,

After spending practically all day on line - being told repeatedly by Movietickets.com that they were 1st doing routine maintenance, then they were experiencing server trouble, when finally it was revealed that the AMC Cinerama here in Seattle, WA. was selling tickets at the box office. This was in direct conflict of what had been published not only by AMC, but on various web sites as well. The theatre was not only selling tickets at the booth, but apparently had a "back-telephone" taking direct orders. No one knew of this. To me it this is "insider-trade" knowledge.

The Manager of the theatre said it was a "done-deal". Decided upon by upper management. That was his first answer. When asked later he stated that he thought he would help by letting customers be able to have access to the buying of the ticktets. Sounds to me like he is "back-peddling" - trying to get out of a very sticky situation - he himself created.

I also understand that this has happened in several other areas, such as San Diego, CA...also with an AMC theatre. Maybe this ( these ) practices should be looked into.

I would hope New Line will look into this, and create more than 1 "exclusive" showing of the Trilogy. Spread the showings to more than 1 theatre - one which really cares about their customers. At the same time increasing the sales for the various theatres, and New Line as well.

Thank you for letting me vent. I was one of the ones on line from 0700 to 1700, trying to get tickets, calling customer service, and speaking with the theatre. I wanted the tickets for Christmas Gifts.

Sincerally,

Linda Gale "Kate"
RingCon - USA and affiliate of RingCon - Germany
Advertizing, Media, Public Relations Director

Even as one of the too few fans out there who was able to get tickets, I feel it necessary to say that the organization of the whole Trilogy Tuesday affair has apparently been abominable. I have heard multiple accounts from theatre employees, managers, and fans alike of how the theatres only found out that they would be showing the marathon on very short notice and, as a result, were only just able to throw something together online or at the box office and ended up disappointing many fans.

Here in Boston, Fandango had such horrid technical problems that almost no one was able to get tickets online for nearly an hour after they officially went on sale. In the end this turned out to be good for many hardcore fans, because the theatre had NOT placed a limit on the number of tickets that would be sold through Fandango, nor on the number of tickets that each person could purchase. If the site had been running properly, all the tickets would undoubtedly have disappeared in seconds, and people like me who waited in line for hours at the theatre would have been turned away.

How a company that has produced such excellent movies, and excited this much passion from fans, could show such poor judgment in the handling of this critical event is beyond me. The only explanation I can see is that the need for secrecy and the desire to build suspense necessitated this last-minute stampede, but even so, the monstrous fiasco that has been the ticket sales thus far more than warrants a second, more carefully thought-out effort. Of course, I mean more marathon showings (if not several in the same theatres, then more in the smaller theatres that are now being passed over, so that fans in the larger states won’t have to travel hundreds of miles) and a second round of scheduled ticket sales for the newly-added venues, WITH appropriate limits. If New Line was hoping that a limited showing would generate more excitement and create higher demand, then they have my congratulations for succeeding with flying colors. However, since this excruciatingly fleeting opportunity for fans to realize a generations-old dream has been handled in such a clumsy, desperately disorganized manner, I for one would appreciate some kind of word from New Line, if nothing more, explaining what they are hoping to accomplish by restricting this event to a lucky few. I was lucky, and I see no reason why such an awesome opportunity should be governed by luck, when there are people who have the power to make this run properly and satisfy more fans. From what I’ve seen, there is absolutely no chance that New Line will fail to reap an enormous profit from the decision to add more showings.

With uttermost empathy for anyone lacking a ticket (if you knew how easily I could be in your position now),
Charlotte

P.S. No amount of secrecy or demand-building could explain why there appear to be no plans to show the marathon outside the U.S. That is just silly.
P.P.S. We can thank our lucky stars that eBay’s policy forbids the sale of event tickets over face value, if the buyer and seller live in the same state as the event, or $2 over face value, if only one of the two does. Not that some don’t slip through unnoticed, but here’s hoping that a few shameless scalpers are feeling sheepish right now.

To whom it may concern at New Line Cinema,

My name is Mariella and I'm the Line Party leader (from theonering.net) for Loews Boston Common. There are currently 107 members in our group, and we are all big fans of New Line and of Peter Jackson especially. Many of us have enjoyed terrific line parties for two years at Loews for the midnight openings of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, and have been eagerly awaiting the release of The Return of the King as the culmination of all of the previous years, a real once-in-a-lifetime event. When we heard about Trilogy Tuesday, we were ecstatic. New Line is doing something just for the fans! Way to go! I personally have been in touch with Loews for more than 3 months now, working out the details and preparing for this big event. Although we heard that the Trilogy was only going to be shown in a limited number of theaters, we were confident that our Loews would be one of them, and that we would have no problem getting tickets, since we’d been able to get them for the past two years, and since we knew about this so far in advance.

Unfortunately, this was not to be the case. The problems started right from the beginning. I was in constant contact with Loews, trying to get information about when tickets would go on sale. Since we had so many people, I was hoping we might be able to rent our own theater for the event. I had contacted group sales people at Loews, and things were going well at the beginning of October, though there was still no information about tickets. Then, suddenly, out of the blue, New Line announced the October 9th date. Loews knew nothing about it. They were scrambling. Everything to do with New Line was hush-hush. No one had any definite information. All they could tell me was that they were currently in negotiations, and that New Line was being very tight with the reels, and so they doubted we would be able to get our own theater after all. I was disappointed and confused: why would New Line want to limit the amount of theaters? Didn’t they know that tickets would sell out for this thing in like 10 minutes? Wouldn’t they be turning down an awful lot of money? Why had they waited until last minute? And why was everything so hush-hush? It didn’t make any sense. Still, I was confident that we would be able to get our tickets. After all, we are the true fans, and that’s what the Trilogy is all about, right?

Well, we didn’t get our tickets. Everything happened at the last minute and was very rushed. We didn't know about the 1PM on-sale date until the night before. And unfortunately, this information turned out to be incorrect. Fandango tickets did not go on sale at 1PM, and none of the 800 numbers we were given worked. Besides a few lucky folk, the only people who were able to get tickets were the ones standing in line at the theater. Even some of them didn’t get any. Almost no one was able to get tickets online. They were all bought up by e-bay scalpers, and we had to witness our precious tickets leaked out to e-bay not 30 minutes later. Some of the bids for Boston went up to $300; I’ve heard reports of Salt Lake City tickets going for up to $1000 apiece. This happened because there was no limit on the number of tickets sold to individuals.

Everyone is extremely upset. Our Line Party is completely fragmented. It's just about the worst thing that could have happened. If none of us had gotten tickets, at least we could have bonded together to do something else. Now we are split down the middle. Some have already decided to abandon the Line Party and go to Worchester or Rhode Island. It's really unfortunate, because we had the potential to do something really great this year. My sister's Pittsburgh LP is collecting Tolkien books for the Salvation Army's Treasures for Children fund. Tolkien fans are really a great bunch of people, with a lot of potential. It's a tragedy, what's happening.

I realize that many of these errors were out of New Line Cinema’s hands. Yet a lot of these issues could have been avoided if New Line had provided ample time and permission to show these movies in more than one theater. My question remains: why so stingy with the reels? Only 100 theaters nationwide? Only 600 seats at Loews? What is the reason for this? It can’t be about money: you would make millions! Is it only because you have ‘special gifts’ for each participant? I don’t mean to sound rude, but I would prefer that you keep your gifts, and give me back my Line Party! I’m sure you had good intentions with the Trilogy, but what has ended up happening is that most of the fans you intended to please with this got royally screwed. Why not consider regaining our favor and opening up another theater (or handful of theaters) for Trilogy Tuesday? It would save our fragmented Line Party, and would make a lot of disappointed people very happy. If you do decide to do it, I suggest giving the theaters plenty of advanced notice, and putting a limit on the number of tickets sold to individuals.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Mariella (star_queen_elbereth@yahoo.com)
Line Party Leader, Loews Boston Common
www.theonering.net (TORn)

Addendum: To fellow Line Party Leaders and fans: Please contact me at star_queen_elbereth@yahoo.com if you have any (legitimate) contacts at New Line or fandango, or if you've come up with any brilliant plans to circumvent these issues, especially in the Boston area. Thank you!

Hello, Lord of the Rings staff;

I would first and foremost like to thank you personally for all the efforts put into this once-in-a-lifetime film and its excellent and fan-friendly web presence. In fact, the whole history of this project has been very conscious of who this film is really made for, that is, the fans of this excellent story, of whom you yourselves have proven to be among the greatest.

For the sake of the fans, and for the sake of this truly unique project, I ask you to consider the responce for the Trilogy Tuesday screening of the Extended Fellowship and Two Towers followed by Return of the King: that is, mindboggling and explosive. Almost every participating theatre was sold out within an HOUR of beginning to sell tickets, with lines still stretching out the doors and thousands more trying to call in or reserve tickets online. At this point only a very limited number of theatres are being allowed to participate in this event, which allows only the most miniscule fraction of those who cherish this modern epic to enjoy it as it should be told.

For this is how the film (and it is only one film in three parts) should be shown, back to back to back, as it was filmed all together and concieved all together. The Trilogy Tuesday event is the first (and apparently only) time when the public will be able to see on the big screen this project which stands alone among all stories and films today. Thousands of fans are ready and willing to buy tickets, wait in line, and celebrate these three films as they finally come together on December 16th.

I do not know who will read this or what influence you have with New Line Cinemas, but please, for the sake of the fans who are at the center of these films and for the films themselves, open more theatres and more showings to the Trilogy Tuesday event. There will be no lack of people to buy tickets or to fill the seats. Do not let politics or vague policies stop the culmination of this trilogy, the most important in modern times.

Thank you for your time;
Namarie,
~Hans Rinderknecht
hrinderk@princeton.edu

I was very disappointed when I found out the tickets in the Pittsburgh area sold out in three hours. The day before the tickets were to be on sale, my fiance had gone to the theater and talked with the manager. The manager stated that they had just received word that they would be hosting this event, and did not have any further details. He also said to call the theater at 6pm the following day. As I was working all day on Thursday, I could not call until later that night; this was already too late. I, like many of my co-workers and other fans, have been waiting for this opportunity since word was first announced. In speaking for all in the group I was organizing, we sincerely hope New Line will take notice of how popular this event has become, and how much of a profit could be made by authorizing additional trilogy dates and theaters. These movies were made to be seen back-to-back, and there is no place better than on the big screen. 99% of the fans in this world will not be able to see the movie premieres or join in with the elaborate parties; this event was an opportunity everyone could enjoy. Here's hoping New Line will grant us this wish.

Sincerely,
Jennifer

Disappointment reins supreme in Boston. Bitterness toward Lowes Cineplex, New Line Cinema, and ultimately FANDANGO is rampant. The ticket sales on October 9th were nothing short of a disaster. TRUE fans, who have spent their time, money and energy supporting these films for three years were screwed over in a major way and no-one will even simply accept responsibility.

SIMPLE FACTS:
1) Loews had no information until the night before tickets went on sale.
2) When Loews finally did have information we were directed to go to FANDANGO.com and tickets would be on sale at 1pm.
3) Tickets DID NOT go on sale at 1pm.
4) Most fans in BOSTON who DID do their homework and were prepared to get their tickets, GOT NOTHING.
5) This is someone's fault and it is NOT the fault of any fan who sat refreshing the FANDANGO website page over and over again for 45 minutes only to find out we took 12/16/03 off from work for no reason.

Watching all three of these films as they were meant to be viewed should be a given, not something I have to bid over $1,000 on ebay to see. (I do not have one thousand dollars so I guess I won't be seeing much.)This situation makes myself and countless numbers of others in Boston consider not spending another cent on a movie at a Loews theatre or at FANDANGO ever again. Yet, I love the films so much I was still the first person in line at midnight to purchase the Two Towers extended edition. Where is the fairness? Where is the fan appreciation? Why is buying a movie ticket more difficult then buying a world series ticket? This situation is simply intolerable. I wrote to Loews and received no response. I wrote to Fandango and received no response. I wrote to Fandango AGAIN and they finally wrote back and blamed Loews for the whole disaster. So now here I am petitioning New Line. Loews told me over the phone they are requesting you add another trilogy (at least in Boston where the biggest disaster occurred.) Logic should dictate that these companies would like to generate revenue as well as retain their fans. So logically speaking it would make A WHOLE LOT OF SENSE to add another trilogy viewing. I apologize if my words seem harsh but aside from how very "heated" I am, at heart I am truly disappointed. As described, this event is a once in a lifetime experience and it is extremely unfair that myself and so many other fans will not be experiencing it in their lifetime. "YET...hope remains... IF company stays true..."

Sincerely,
A disheartened fan in BOSTON