Sir Peter Jackson says he will personally ensure a group of die-hard Wellington Hobbit fans who were duped by a ticketing error will get to see his movie, possibly before most of the world.
Members of the Tolkien Society New Zealand were among around 60 people who queued for several hours to purchase tickets to the first public screening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, only to find they had missed out as the midnight session they wanted tickets for was never on sale.
A spokesperson for Jackson has told Fairfax Media the director will do his best to ensure those loyal fans will not be left out.
''We're going to reach out to Jack Machiela and the NZ Tolkien Society directly, and Peter will arrange something special for them. Suffice to say, they'll get to see the movie in 3D, 48 frames. Possibly even a minute or two before anyone else,” says Matt Dravitzki.
The fans are still annoyed however, claiming they lined up specifically for a screening to begin at 12:01am, which was listed on the Embassy Theatre sale – but the theatre has taken to Facebook to say those tickets were never for sale.
“There is a session taking place at that time but we have no tickets available for sale for this session. If the session was not listed, we know a lot of people would ask us why we had no midnight session scheduled and this would create a lot of confusion. We have tried to eliminate this confusion by listing the session. I understand this has caused yourself and other Hobbit fans some frustration, which I greatly apologize for.”
Disgruntled fans have taken to the same Facebook page to voice their dismay.
“The marketing was deceptive. The Embassy should have ensured that tickets were available for all who had been encouraged to turn up in person to purchase. But no - not even 1 ticket was available for anyone!” says David Murray.
“The issue is that midnight showings were advertised online. We were not told about this and our first inkling that anything was wrong was when we checked online from the queue (our backup plan) at 11:50 to see the midnight showing sold out. Every other cinema was offering midnight showings, what did the Embassy think would happen when they put up the showing as sold out? The staff at the embassy had no idea that the midnight screening was reserved and simply told us that online bookings open slightly before box office sales,” says Jonathan Coppard.
3 News
source: newshub archive
