As you know, Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith is now in theaters. I hope to see the movie sometime this weekend. Some diehard fans of the film couldn’t wait for the weekend. Their desire to be at the theater on opening night led to a strange malady that forced many to call in sick today:
"For some in the tech industry, the chance to see Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith in its opening couple of days is just not something they’re willing to pass up—at any cost.
"And while that early viewing may be a badge of honor for geeks around the world, the ‘Star Wars flu’ may pull down productivity figures, analysts warned.
"’There’s nothing like being here for the first showing,’ said an IT manager for a financial brokerage firm on Wednesday, while standing in line in front of the Metreon theater complex in San Francisco.
"He had called in sick in order to see the midnight showing on the DLP (digital light processing) cinema screen. After spending quite a few hours in the cold and drizzle, he added that he might not make it to his job on Thursday, as he felt a ‘second day’ of his cold coming on."
Amazing, isn’t it, how a long-anticipated film can be a carrier of the cold-and-flu virus.
Seriously though, what is it about grown men and women that too many of them seem never to have heard of the concept of delayed gratification? Instead of figuring "Hey, I’ve waited six years for the final episode of the prequel trilogy; I can wait another day or two and catch the movie this weekend," the thought processes are more like, "Must … see … NOW!"
Patience is an underrated virtue in our society, I’m afraid.
“Patience is an underrated virtue in our society, I’m afraid.”
True. And I think this sort of calling in “sick” is silly & deceitful. Being a film fan & theater person, I enjoy the excitement of opening night. So I usually plan ahead & take a vacation day for big, *event* movies like this one. (There’s usually no more than one a year; fewer now that LOTR’s all done. But Narnia is on it’s way!) That way, everyone knows that I’ll be off. (Luckily, they usually don’t need coverage for my position.) Didn’t for this Star Wars, though. Too much work to get to right now so I couldn’t take the day. But I did catch a 12:01am showing yesterday! Best o’ both worlds! 😉
Here’s a copy of the email I sent:
********
—–Original Message—–
From: XXXXX
Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 3:01 PM
To: XXXXX,XXXXX
Subject: Thursday….
Hi All,
I might be getting in a tad later than normal tomorrow… I ..um… feel a cold coming on [cough][cough]… you know… one of those colds that always strikes me on the day of Star Wars premiers… I might need a little time to recoup… 🙂
********
Clearly I have a fairly casual work environment at the moment. 🙂
For me it isn’t really a matter of delayed gratification. It’s the company. At midnight of the first day, there’s a count down for the movie to start. The opening is greeted with thunderous applause. There are cheers everytime Yoda does to show how powerful he is. Chants of “Obi-Wan! Obi-Wan!” The crowd is full of fans who are, like me, totally excited to be there. You may laugh, but it’s a shared cultural experience. Or at least a sub-cultural experience. And this one is likely to be the last one.
Going to the movie a week later is just a totally different. The crowd is dead and just munching their popcorn like so many cows. If you start cheering you’ll just make a fool out of yourself. Not that they’re doing anything wrong. It is just a movie after all. But the experience is totally different.
I must admit that I’m starting to get a little too old for all this. But I am very happy I made opening night one last time.
I agree with LawfulGood. The best time to enjoy the 4th of July is on the 4th of July.
As for delayed gratification, isn’t blogging (and the comments box) an example of how this is ignored? We…must…write…and…post…NOW, rather than sitting down and writing real articles, like they did in our grandparent’s internet.
When you have four kids, you wait until it comes out on DVD. Then, it takes about 4 nights to watch the whole movie in its entirety because you are too tired to watch the whole thing in one night and you can’t watch it any earlier because it has to be screened before the kiddos can watch and they have to be in bed asleep so that you can watch it in peace. Now THAT’s delay of gratification.
AMEN, Suzanne!
We have often rented movies and not watched them at all.
Adventures in Parenting!
Hello Jimmy,
1. I’ve gone to midnight screenings for all six LOTR and STAR WARS prequel movies.
I planned ahead and took off the day for vacation when I thought it would be problematic. Maybe that’s not so easy when you have a department full of IT geeks and everyone would want the day off, however…
But then I’ve heard of some such departments just shutting down for the day.
2. Half the fun of going to a midnight screening is the fact that it’s a midnight screening.
The hardcore fans show up, often in costume. All sorts of fun ensues in line and in the theater. Applause is vigorous at the right moments. That’s half the magic right there.
Harder to do, of course, if you have small children to tend to…
I’ve never been to a midnight debut of any movie and really am not keen to do so anytime soon. Knowing me I’d dawdle on the ‘Net for two hours after getting home and finally hit the sack at 4:30 AM.
I did, however, take this past Friday off work for the purpose of driving up to Dayton Oh. to visit an old college buddy. We caught a matinee of Episode III on Saturday afternoon.