'The Dark Knight' Sells Out Fastest Just Before the Dawn on Fandango

'The Dark Knight' Sells Out Fastest Just Before the Dawn on Fandango

The Next 'Batman' Movie Will Pack Theaters Through the Night of July 17

LOS ANGELES, July 9 /PRNewswire/ -- With more than a week to go before the highly-anticipated release of "The Dark Knight," Fandango, the nation's leading moviegoer destination, reports that many of its pre-opening Thursday midnight shows on July 17 are already sold out in cities across the country, from New York to Boise, Idaho. Theaters continue to add 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. showtimes to meet the ticketing demand.

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"'The Dark Knight' may be responsible for a lot of bleary eyes at work next Friday morning," says Rick Butler, Chief Operating Officer for Fandango. "We're seeing a record number of late-night showtimes selling out in advance, while theaters are adding new performances every day."

More than 1,500 late-night showtimes of the movie have been scheduled for the film's pre-opening on Thursday night (Friday morning), July 17-18, at http://www.fandango.com/thedarkknight. An online survey of more than 3,000 "The Dark Knight" fans on Fandango.com last week resulted in the following information on the late-night surge:

   --  37% of respondents plan to see the film at least once during one of       the late night performances on Thursday night.   --  38% say that they intend to take off a few hours or the entire day       from work on Friday as a result of seeing the movie the night before.   --  60% of these moviegoers are male.   --  71% are under the age of 35.   --  39% plan to see the film in IMAX(R).   --  92% expect that the Academy will recognize Heath Ledger's performance       as The Joker with a posthumous Oscar(R) nomination next year.    

For Fandango, "The Dark Knight" is poised to be the year's top advance ticket-seller in wide release, outpacing "Iron Man," "Indiana Jones 4" and "Sex and the City" at the same point in those films' sales cycles.

About Fandango

One of the Web's top movie and entertainment destinations, Fandango sells tickets to more than 15,000 screens. Fandango entertains and informs consumers with reviews, commentary and trailers, and offers the ability to quickly select a film, plan where and when to see it, and conveniently buy tickets in advance. Fandango is available at http://www.fandango.com/, 1-800-FANDANGO and via your wireless mobile device at mobile.fandango.com. Fandango is a unit of Comcast Interactive Media.

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Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20061016/LAM046LOGO-b
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com

Source: Fandango

CONTACT: Harry Medved of Fandango, +1-310-954-0461,
harry.medved@fandango.com

Web site: http://www.fandango.com/

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Profile: International Entertainment