Hundreds of fans of the series and upcoming movie “The Hunger Games” have been lining up outside the Union Square Barnes & Noble in New York City today. The fans are all eager to get a glimpse and an autograph from stars of the movie, which hits theaters at midnight on Thursday.
While it’s unclear which actors will be at the Barnes and Noble tonight, book author Suzanne Collins, Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson are all in New York today.
The line to meet the stars stretches three blocks long, from 15th Street to 18th Street, according to reports from the scene.
Fans started camping out at 3 a.m. this morning in order to be first in line. They are sitting in lawn chairs, laying on blankets and sleeping bags and ducked under umbrellas to avoid the sun in the unseasonably 70-degree day.
Ameelina Sluka 14, for example, starting waiting outside the bookstore at 6:30 a.m. today.
“I have read every book, and I love ‘The Hunger Games!,'” Sluka exclaimed.
“I am a big ‘Hunger Games’ fan, and I just want to meet the actors
and tell them what they mean to us,” said Julia Orsini, 16, who has been there since
4:30 a.m., and came with her father.
Reviews leaked out yesterday, nearly all positive — Metro’s own film critic called it “murderously good.”
The movie’s plot revolves around the Hunger Games, where two children from every district in “Panem,” the new North America in the book, are forced to fight to the death. Only one survives.
Already beating “Twilight”
Purchases to see “The Hunger Games” made up of 92 percent of all movie ticket sales nationwide Tuesday, ticket site Fandango reported just this afternoon.
And yes, it’s already beating “Twilight.” “The Hunger Games” has also sold more advance tickets than the “Twilight” series did in advance sales, according to Fandango.
“And there’s two and a half days to go,” pointed out Fandango spokesman Harry Medved.
In New York, 10 midnight showings are sold out at each the IMAX theater at Lincoln Center, Medved said, and at the Regal Union Square. At Lincoln Center, seven of those 10 showings – stacked at times like 12:01, 12:02 and 12:03 — sold out last week.
In a Fandango survey last week of moviegoers buying “Games” tickets, New Yorkers were most looking forward to the sometimes-gruesome arena moments – 61 percent of New Yorkers said the action was the thing they were most looking forward to, compared to 54 percent of ticket buyers in the rest of the country.
New Yorkers were also more likely to line up at midnight Thursday night – 62 percent said they wanted to go on opening night, compared to 58 percent in the rest of the U.S.
