'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' destroys Fandango first-day sales record

‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ destroys Fandango first-day sales record

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First Order stormtroopers are shown in a scene from “The Force Awakens.”

(Film Frame / Associated Press)

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Shown is Captain Phasma, played by “Game of Thrones” star Gwendoline Christie, in a scene from “The Force Awakens.”

(Film Frame / Associated Press)

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Domhnall Gleeson stars as General Hux in “The Force Awakens.”

(David James / Associated Press)

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Rey (Daisy Ridley), left, the pint-sized droid BB-8, and Finn (John Boyega) make a break for it in a scene from “The Force Awakens.”

(Film Frame / Associated Press)

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Finn gets a helping hand in a scene from “The Force Awakens.”

(Film Frame / Associated Press)

By Ryan FaughnderStaff Writer

Oct. 20, 2015 10:28 AM PT

“Star Wars” fans may have crashed Fandango’s website, but they also set a record for the online movie ticket seller.

The first day of presales for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” which arrives in theaters Dec. 18, was by far the biggest ever for Fandango.

It generated eight times the volume that the previous record holder, 2012’s “The Hunger Games,” sold on its first day on the market, Fandango said Tuesday in a statement.

Tickets went on sale Monday to coincide with the debut of the full-length trailer during ESPN’s Monday Night Football game. The Walt Disney Co., which is releasing the film, also owns ESPN.

For many consumers, it wasn’t a smooth jump to light speed. The high demand for early tickets overwhelmed Fandango and other ticket-selling websites, where some frustrated customers were met with error messages and long wait times.

“With such extraordinary demand, we saw intermittent technical challenges that caused some consumers to queue online longer than expected,” Fandango said. “Nevertheless, we were able to continuously serve ticket sales throughout the night.”

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AMC Theatres, the nation’s second-largest theater chain, was among those affected. Austin, Texas-based Alamo Drafthouse and Los Angeles-based Arclight Cinemas also had difficulties with their websites.

“We greatly apologize for the inconvenience, but we are working quickly to get the website back up ASAP,” Arclight said in a statement Monday night.

Theater chains in the United Kingdom experienced similar problems with early ticket sales. The ticketing problems are an embarrassment for chains that are hoping to cash in on the biggest movie of the year, one that could help the industry set a new box-office record.

Tim League, chief executive and co-founder of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, offered a contrite statement to customers, saying the surge in traffic “exposed weaknesses” in its online ticketing systems.

The cinema chain switched from its own crashed system to Fandango once that site was back up and running.

“We tried to be ready for this hugely important day, and we missed the mark,” League said.

Still, theater chains saw a boom in business. AMC said more than 1,000 shows at its theaters sold out in less than 12 hours. It also set its single-day advance ticket sales record, doing 10 times the amount of the previous high-mark.

Staff writer Richard Verrier contributed to this report.

Follow Ryan Faughnder on Twitter for more entertainment business coverage: @rfaughnder.

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