Maybe it’s all an issue of age and location, but any time someone I know starts talking about Neil Berger’s upcoming young adult adventure Divergent, it’s in reference to how goofy the trailers look and how sick they are of such YA tentpoles. But apparently people are having different kinds of conversations around the country, particularly when pre-ordering movie tickets, as Fandango reports Divergent’s first day of ticket presales outpaced the first Twilight film, making it one of Fandango’s biggest first day sellers ever.
Just how big was the presale? Over half of the site’s preordained ticket count was bought up in just its first day, and assuming the film will open on over 3,000 theaters as most wide releases do, that means roughly 1,500 theaters sold out in mere hours. It was outselling the second place holder by a margin of five tickets to one. I wish there was a statistic on how many divorced alcoholic men in their 50s were among those purchasing tickets, because I’m betting it’s zero.
If this kind of sell-out behavior continues over the next couple of weeks prior to the film's March 21st premiere, there is indeed a good chance the lofty predictions of a $65 million opening weekend will come true. Plus, it could become one of Fandango’s biggest presales in the company’s history. Regardless of my disinterest in Divergent, I’m perfectly happy with anything knocking Twilight’s successes down a couple of notches.
For Fandango’s fan-submitted survey, Divergent was the fifth most anticipated film of 2014, and I think it’ll surprise no one that The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 sits in that number one slot. I don’t think it’s madness to believe that both of the Mockingjay films will destroy Fandango’s presale records. In fact, they’ll probably be giving advance tickets away with receipts in grocery stores.
Adapted from the novel by Veronica Roth, who publically applauded the adaptation, Divergent takes place in a futuristic Chicago where the population is split into five different factions based on each citizen’s greatest virtue. The 16-year-old Tris Prior (Shailene Woodley) discovers she is Divergent, meaning she fits into more than one faction. For some reason, this is an insanely dangerous thing to be, and one of the faction’s leaders, Jeanine Matthews (Kate Winslet), is set on hunting her and everyone like her down. Tris teams up with Four (Theo James) and Peter (Miles Teller) to figure out the mysteries behind being Divergent, and take Jeanine down.
If you’re interested in feeding into this prerelease frenzy, you can order your tickets here.
