Wristbands reduce evening wait in line

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File Photo: Iowa State Daily

A line stretching around the corner for a movie premier. Wristbands are supposed to eliminate this problem, but they are only moving it. 

Josh Oren

Extremely popular movies have a common convention that happens on the eve of their release, where hordes of people line up to be some of the first to fill the theater.

Fanatics of the film may form a line hours before the movie’s release, and in some rare cases, days. Such events were common with movies like Star Wars and Harry Potter in the past. This year, The Dark Knight Rises has formed enough hype that Cinemark Movies 12 is taking a different angle: wristbands.

The way it works is that wristbands are meant to save customers a spot in the line that forms at midnight. The first person to get their wristband will have the first spot in line, then the second person will have one reserving the second spot for them, and so on.

Moviegoers can pick up their wristband starting on Thursday, July 19th at 10 a.m., and must show their ticket to get one.

Instead of eliminating a line, this is actually creating two lines. One for getting wristbands, and one for the midnight release of the movie. People may line up hours before 10 a.m. on Thursday to get a wristband of higher priority, in order to ensure a top spot in the midnight line.

The waiting aspect has been moved to the morning, and costumers can show up five minutes before the midnight release and get a good spot in line, due to the priority printed on their wristband. Consumers can be wake up early to get in line to get a good wristband, as opposed to standing hours before midnight to get a decent spot in the theater.