Star Wars Blasts Off In Party Atmosphere

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Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

By Jill Serjeant

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - They camped out for hours, jousted with light sabers, paraded in ``Wookie'' and ``Jedi Knight'' costumes and turned the opening day of the latest ``Star Wars'' epic Wednesday into an impromptu national holiday.

The force was with the tens of thousands of die-hard ``Star Wars'' fans who filled movie theaters across the United States starting at one minute past midnight to see the year's most eagerly-anticipated movie.

And the fans kept coming in droves throughout the day, filling an estimated 3,000 theaters around the country in what experts said was an amazing start for ``Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace.''

``About half the theater was in costume and they all went crazy whenever old characters were introduced. It was well worth the 12 hours lining up,'' said 17-year-old Alex James, who went to the 00:01 a.m. EDT showing in Hightstown, N.J., dressed as Jedi knight Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Many of the fans who thronged the theaters were playing ''Wookie Hooky'' --skipping work and school to see the movie.

Wild cheers broke out as the familiar words ``A long time ago in a galaxy far away,'' trailed across the screen at the start of the $115 million dollar prequel to the biggest box-office trilogy of all time.

Undeterred by mixed reviews, the first of the hard-core fans started lining up weeks ago to get tickets, spending nights on sidewalks in sleeping bags or camping chairs.

At Mann's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, where director George Lucas's original ``Star Wars'' epic had its premiere in 1977, lines stretched for more than 200 yards (meters) Wednesday morning.

``I'm just a geek. I love sci-fi'', said Nona Dominguez, a computer systems expert, who passed the 10-hour wait playing ''Star Wars'' monopoly with her four children and 30 colleagues from California's Pacific University.

Mark Gottlieb, 26, lounged patiently in a ``Darth Maul'' blow-up chair after sleeping out for a night to get tickets. ''It's very exciting. I am a huge fan. I got into the film industry because of this,'' he said.

Movie industry analysts expect that ``Phantom Menace,'' whose story is set a generation before the ``Star Wars'' trilogy, will soar past the all-time one day box office record of $26.1 million set by ``The Lost World: Jurassic Park'' in 1997.

``There's never really been anything like this,'' AMC Theaters president Richie Fay told Daily Variety. ``There's never been this high a demand for a Wednesday opening film. This is the benchmark that every big picture going forward will be compared to.''

The Florida tourist city of Key West brought its typical frenetic gusto to the occasion.

The 801 Bar on the tourist strip Duval Street snapped up 150 of the 250 seats available at the island city's only major movie theater and packaged them with a party and a ``Star Wars'' themed drag show that attracted thousands and closed off the street.

``It was fabulous,'' 801 owner Jim Gilleran said.

``Ninety-five percent of the people were in costumes. It was like in the spirit of Rocky Horror, going to the theater in a group and turning it into more of an event,'' he added, referring to the 1970s musical cult classic.

Emotions ran high in San Francisco, where movie-goers jousted with light sabers before the lights dimmed and one fan went to the front of the theater to propose to his girlfriend.

``The Grateful Dead has deadheads. 'Star Trek' has trekkies, we have Jed-heads,'' another fan, Dale Tolosa, 24, told reporters.

``I'm turning 25 soon. It's perfect. Our parents might not understand why we're camping out, but we had to do it.''

Earlier Stories

Judgment Day Nears For Lucas, 'Phantom Menace' (May 18)
Judgement Day Nears For Lucas, 'Phantom Menace' (May 17)
Internet Bottlenecks Frustrate 'Star Wars' Fans (May 14)
'Star Wars' Fans Jam Ticket Lines For Advance Sales (May 13)

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