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Star Wars Prequels Media Movies

So Did the Hordes Really Skip out for Episode 2? 422

Posted by Cliff from the let-the-box-office-record-tell-the-tale dept.
gabec asks: "A few days ago Slashdot reported that thousands of people were going to call in sick so they could go check out the new Star Wars movie. Virtually the entirety of the computer services department at my university is taking the day off in unison to go see the show. I expect the whole school to implode that day. So my question is, how many Slashdot readers really did skip out of work for Star Wars Episode 2?" Those wacky geeks over at General Protection Fault probably said it the best. I think a high truancy rate was only to be expected. Funny thing to note: timothy and I went to see Spider-Man, yesterday and we were the only two people in that theatre. Three guesses where everyone else went, and the first two don't count.
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So Did the Hordes Really Skip out for Episode 2? More

So Did the Hordes Really Skip out for Episode 2?

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  • Kindof... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Steve Cox ( 207680 )
    I booked two days holiday so I could see the midnight showing at Leicester Square, London.

    Steve.

  • that's it? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Frac ( 27516 ) on Saturday May 18, 2002 @12:33PM (#3542755)
    timothy and I went to see Spider-Man, yesterday and we were the only two people in that theatre

    Nice yo! Last time that happened to me and my girlfriend we had sex for the entire movie, and didn't even watch one bit of it.

    and you and timothy do anything... oh wait a minute, nevermind.

  • Poll? (Score:5, Funny)

    by QuodEratDemonstratum ( 569501 ) on Saturday May 18, 2002 @12:34PM (#3542758) Homepage
    Wouldn't this be better as a poll?

    Did you miss work to see starwars
    O Yes.
    O No.
    O Cowboy Neal went and told me what happened when he got back.

    My vote is "No"
  • We did the midnight showing and I got home about 4am. We just all showed up at work late, but still made it in. Barely.

  • I had an important meeting (Score:5, Funny)

    by Wateshay ( 122749 ) <bill@nagel.gmail@com> on Saturday May 18, 2002 @12:35PM (#3542764) Homepage Journal
    I would have skipped out of work to go see Episode II, but I had an important companywide meeting that I had to be at.

    Of course, the companywide meeting just happened to located in the theater that was showing AotC, and lasted exactly the length of the movie.
    • Same here. I actually went and saw it at 12:30 opening night/morning with some friends, but the office bought tickets to see it at 1pm on opening day and had extras -- so I went again.

      It was a nice break. Everybody here had been pulling longs hours and it was a nice thing to do for the employees. We were still required to get our regualr 40 in though.

      Yes, we're most a technical place. Ironically the biggest Star Wars fan is one of the sales guys. He took the week off and made a trip a few hundred miles south of here to see it in digital.
    • Of course, the companywide meeting just happened to located in the theater that was showing AotC, and lasted exactly the length of the movie.

      That's funny. We closed our compatibility testing lab (where I work) for the afternoon and told everyone that we were going to an offsite technology demonstration. The theatre wasn't particularly full, but that was at 2:00 in the afternoon on Thursday at a movie theatre smack in the middle of downtown (versus the busier ones in the 'burbs).

    • Did you play Dilbert's buzzword bingo?

      I've got a bad feeling about this (check)
      May the force be with you (check)
      really cheesy line delivered by a male trying to get the interest of a female (check)
      R2, what do you think you're doing? (check)
      the dark side has cast a shroud over everything (stand up and shout BINGO!)

  • Okay not really, but most of the people that work for me that did go were real nice and asked for a day off or even a half day a few weeks back. I supposed that they'd be in the majority though.
  • We can always watch this movie at night. There are lots of movie theatres featuring it here. Is there any reason why americans should watch it at day?
    • My girlfriend and I went and saw the 12:01am showing Wednesday night, so we did see it at night, but she took off work the next day because we didn't get back to her apartment until 3:15 and she normally gets up at 4:30 for work. I'm sure a large number of the people who skipped out on work did so for a similar reason.
    • Two words: Matinee Pricing

      (typing this (slowly) to fill the lame 20 second rule)

    • Re:I don't understand why this is always bought up (Score:4, Informative)

      by ocbwilg ( 259828 ) on Saturday May 18, 2002 @02:15PM (#3543140)
      We can always watch this movie at night. There are lots of movie theatres featuring it here. Is there any reason why americans should watch it at day?

      Sure. For starters, a lot of people are very anxious to see it.

      Secondly (I'm assuming that you're not American by the tone of your post), most Americans work 40+ hours per week, even more if you're in IT. Compared to the worldwide averages we work longer hours, so every once in awhile we feel obliged to blow off some steam by blowing off some work.

      Thirdly, I saw it during the afternoon and got matinee pricing of $7.50. It's considerably more expensive than that to see it in the evening.
      • Sorry, but I really don't understand this.

        By taking time off work to see a film during working time you save how many dollars exactly on the price of the cinema ticket?

        And the half day's income you lose is how much exactly?

        Round here you'd lose even if you were unemployed, because the car parking charges during the day are so much more than during the evening.
        • There aren't very many movie theaters in the U.S. in a place where you would have to pay for parking, tho' if the *matinee* is $7.50, that might be one of them. Around here that's the evening price, matinee price is $5.

          Also if you're an IT guy like me (and I think you are), you've got sick time/vacation time out the wazoo and you're never going to use it all up on real vacations. So, you make a it a long weekend every once in a while. We have a limit on how much vacation we can carry over from year to year so once you hit the max you've got to take the rest off before Dec. 31 or it disappears.
        • By taking time off work to see a film during working time you save how many dollars exactly on the price of the cinema ticket?

          Since I'm one of those overworked salaried people I'm getting paid the same whether I'm there or not.

          Round here you'd lose even if you were unemployed, because the car parking charges during the day are so much more than during the evening.

          In the States most parking lots are free. Usually only in the downtown metro areas does one have to pay for parking, and there are far more cinemas in the suburbs than in the cities.

          Even though the cinema that I went to was downtown, it's right across the street from the office building I work in, so parking wasn't an issue. But if I had come in though they validate the parking tickets if you buy a movie ticket, in which case parking is only $1. Not a bad deal really.

  • This Could Only HELP the Economy (Score:5, Funny)

    by dmomo ( 256005 ) on Saturday May 18, 2002 @12:37PM (#3542776)
    I don't know why everyone was so worried that the whole IT world would skip out to go watch Episode II.

    How can this hurt the economy? The largest pool of unemployed labor is out spending money!


    Yes, I am a CS guy. Yes, I am unemployed. Yes, I spent $8.50 to see AOTC. Yes, I payed to much for refreshments.

  • Yeah I skipped a class at school and a few hours of work to go see Episode II. It was well worth it.

    Of course my company continued to operate without me being there. Even if we lost 2 or three of our main servers while I as at the movie, the company would continue to operate and the remaining servers would pickup the load.

    Good admins always have automated backup systems that kick in when a failure happens. Having the entire tech industry take a day off wouldn't ruin the world as predicted :)

    x
  • Many people I know went on Wednesday night, and then called in sick the next day in order to catch up on their sleep. Slightly less than half of the people I personally spoke to had been honest with their bosses, saying things like: "Face it -- it's Star Wars day. It is my desssssstiny to miss work."

    I work freelance, so I was able to go both on Wednesday night and then wake up Thursday afternoon and go again. Both theatres were about 80-95% full, but not sold out.

    A few friends who made sure to be there on Day One for TPM told me they would be waiting a few weeks to see AotC, partly to avoid the crowds but mostly because they feared that the movie would violently suck.

    Judging from the very vocal audiences I was a part of, it looks like AotC has made a pretty favourable impression, and seems to suck very little. Canadian audiences are often reluctant to make noise during movies, but the final climatic light-sabre battle in the movie drew many involuntary gasps and cheers from even the most stoic viewers.

    "Die, Jedi dogs!" -C3P0
  • My manager (a genuine SW fan) organized a trip to the theater to see SW:AotC on opening day. The company didn't pay for the tickets, but everyone was excited to:
    a) see Star Wars before everyone else did (including their kids)
    b) spend some time together where there was no pressure to perform

    As an employee of a company that has seen 4-5 layoffs over the past year and a half, and a member of a group that recently completed a very stressful project, I can say this trip was the best thing anyone has done for my group's morale and general stress level in at least six months (and it didn't really cost the company anything). Of course, that probably means we should have been doing stuff like this all along.

    Stephen

    P.S. For those about to say that it cost the company 20 man hours for my group to go see this movie, just take it out of my 'overtime account'. There's about 500 unpaid hours in there already for this year.

  • too late (Score:5, Funny)

    by ComSon0 ( 473373 ) on Saturday May 18, 2002 @12:42PM (#3542805) Homepage
    Well, I tried...
    - called the boss saying I had to go to the doc
    - got the Jedi outfit
    - went to the movies looking like a retard
    - tickets sold-out five guys in front of me in line.
    - went back home and contenplated suicide
    - girlfriend came over and felt kinda hot for the jedi outfit

    happy happy end :)
    • went to the movies looking like a retard

      I was always wondering if those insane people who dress up as Jedi to see Star Wars realize how crazy they allow themselves to be... and now I know.

      • Re:too late (Score:3, Funny)

        by sg3000 ( 87992 )
        There were four or five guys dressed up like Jedi apprentices (they all seemed to have the little braided pony tail), but it seemed kind of geeky.

        Before movie started, they all ran down to the front of the theater to smack their plastic light sabres together in a mock battle. They did that for a few minutes, and then slunk back to their seats to the sardonic applause of the audience.

        It was a good movie, though.
      • I was always wondering if those insane people who dress up as Jedi to see Star Wars realize how crazy they allow themselves to be

        That's not very flattering to me. I went dressed up as Queen Amidala, in her red dress that makes the Poster or PM. Complete with battery pack for the round bulb lights at the bottom.

        What cracked most people up was my 6-inch long pinch.

        All I could say was "hey!, Even Portman has her bad hair days".

        After the ATOC showing, though, I must admit she's got a nicer belly than I do.
    • - girlfriend came over and felt kinda hot for the jedi outfit

      And I thought only Sith Lords had hot pink sabres.

      "No, baby, I promise you I'm not trying to convert you to the dark side... Look, I'll leave the lights on... My metachlorans wanna meet yours, that's all!"
  • I planned my vacation in advance. :)
  • I just bought a ticket on-line for the 7:45pm showing in Redwood City, got there an hour early to wait in line to get in, found a nice aisle seat when I did and saw a kickass film.

    Which it really is. All this complaining about the wooden acting and cheesy dialogue...has anybody ever considered that maybe Lucas is writing the dialogue intentionally to keep the series feeling like the old-time Saturday Morning serials, complete with shiny spaceships, red planets, ripped tops and, yes, oftimes grandiose and stuffy dialogue. And Ebert can stuff it. He gave TPM *three* stars and this one *two* stars. If he honestly thinks AotC is a full star worse than TPM he's completely out of his mind. Go see it. Go see it again. Oh and the guy who ruined parts of it for me with your fuckin' sig, I got people looking for you. )
    • > All this complaining about the wooden acting and
      > cheesy dialogue...has anybody ever considered
      > that maybe Lucas is writing the dialogue
      > intentionally to keep the series feeling like
      > the old-time Saturday Morning serials

      I agree. I loved the movie, for all its cheesy dialog and wooden acting. In my opinion, Lucas even excused Jar Jar and the young Anakin's childish antics. For Jar Jar, clearly he wanted a plausible gullible senator stand-in. For Anakin, he wanted an innocent, but engineering-inclined boy who would later be twisted to the dark side by Palpatine.

      We re-watched ROTJ this morning, and it's funny how the events from Episodes IV-VI can be reinterpreted when you watch Episodes I and II.
  • I can't speak for others, but here at Yahoo!'s user experience group we all went en-masse. They paid for our tickets, (waiting in line *for us* two weeks ago) and we all took three hours out to catch it.

    Nothing like a little off-site to keep morale high!
  • Our CEO took the whole company in the middle of the afternoon. Otherwise, well - I'm sure some of us would have been missing.
  • I told the folks at my job, over a month ago, that I simply would not be available to work on May 16th. They simply said, "okay, thanks for giving us plenty of advance notice," and that was that.

    The HR person later asked why I was taking the day off, and I declined to tell her (citing "personal reasons").

    (The kicker is, I saw said HR person in the theater. I think *she* actually "called in". Oh, sweet irony.)

  • Three guesses where everyone else went, and the first two don't count

    1. CowboyNeal
    2. Darth Cowboy
    3. Jar Jar Strikes Back.
  • ... but then again, most worked that evening until 9pm when we normally leave at about 5:30. "Skipping work" doesn't have to mean screwing your company. (Although, the sales people know you are there until 9.... they think you just ditched.)
  • Went Thursday night. No problem getting tickets. No line. Theater about one-quarter empty. Movie not that great; needs re-editing.

    Incidentally, did anyone else notice that in Spider-Man, when he's swinging down Silicon Alley, there's a banner for "Webstrands Platform"?

  • The employment firm that came up with those statistics had that exact same announcement [sfgate.com] when EP1 came out. Slashdot also covered [slashdot.org] it then too.

  • I informed my boss that I would be coming in four hours later that day... Luckily I'm only working part time, so I could fill in for those four hours the next day. :^)

  • Film Projection Did Not Matter (Score:3, Interesting)

    by erasmus_ ( 119185 ) on Saturday May 18, 2002 @01:47PM (#3543043)
    I just couldn't justify getting off work to see it, but I did have my tickets for yesterday (Friday night) secured online a week in advance, and very glad I did. Although the AMC where we saw it was not digital-equipped, the picture looked clear and fine, so I'm not sure what purists and Roger Ebert complained about. I'm still definitely planning to see it in our digital-equipped Showcase theater later, but I'm not expecting to notice that much of a difference. I think film projection can present this film perfectly in a nice theater with a well-tuned bright projector.

    The good news for me is that I was really afraid I would hate it. Like most, I was disappointed by EP1, and heard that although this one was better, it wasn't much so. I would have to respectfully disagree with those opinions. This movie blows EP1 away, and although I have to see it again before figuring out where it stands in the rankings of the whole series, I'm definitely seeing it again. I'm pretty sure that having Jar-Jar on the screen for probably less than a minute total was significantly better than a movie full of Ewoks.

    The battle scenes are outstanding, and I have no idea why some people said that only the last half an hour of the movie is "redeeming." I don't want to give anything away, but there are plenty of action scenes throughout the movie, starting out very early. Sure there is dialog and exposition interspersed throughout, but it's all very well done. For those of you who, like me, didn't like EP1 and had reservations about seeing it this weekend, I strongly recommend you check it out. Don't wait for video, or necessarily to see it in digital - it's a beautiful exciting movie that definitely needs to be seen on the big screen. Lucas has redeemed himself a little in my eyes, and I can't wait to see how EP3 will turn out now.
  • My friend and I took THREE DAYS off of work to wait in line. Fortunately Fargo is a bad place to wait for several months, so we were near the front. I agree with all the non-paid reviewers that believe this movie rocks, and I plan to see it again this afternoon...

    And to all the naysayers out there: waiting in line with fellow SW geeks is almost as fun as sitting in a packed theater with them. My friend won an original 1970s Millenium Falcon toy, with box and instructions included. Sure, opened toys are worth less, but it's a KICKIN' centerpiece. Lightsaber duels happened almost hourly, and we had great fun mocking the people who drove by to mock us. The movie is that much more beautiful when sleep-deprived and living off of Doritos and pizza.

    Can you tell me which is more pathetic...a person who can take three days off of their job with no one complaining to wait in line for a movie, or a person who goes out of their way three days in a row to drive by and yell "Homo" at those first people?

  • I took a half-day on Friday and hit the 12:40 matinee. Smartest thing I've ever done when it comes to seeing a movie at the theater. It was early enough in the day to not have to deal with the overly hardcore Star Warshippers and admission only cost $4.

    At work we tried to talk the Boss into making Friday afternoon a team-wide AotC event, but he rambled about "that rubbish" and ranted on and on about how the last good sci-fi movie was 2001: A Space Odyssey.

    With the office trip option not going to happen, I got to work early on Friday, finished my projects for the day, skipped lunch, and was out the door by 12:15.

    And, if possible, I'll do it again in 2005.

  • Because I have a contract work so I don't really get paid vacation days/sick days. I would have done it, but since the job market is bad, I decided not to. It is weird that pretty much everyone at my employer, Symantec, was at work. And there are a lot of geeks!

    Now that it is weekend, I have a nasty cold (aching body) and I can't go :(.

  • I got home about 4:00 am. I went to work and was there in body, but even less in spirit than normal. What do I count as?

  • I was stunned (Score:2, Interesting)

    by swankypimp ( 542486 )
    I was driving through my old college stomping grounds of Ann Arbor, MI on Thursday, and decided on a whim to see if there was any chance whatsoever of getting tickets. I doubted that tickets would be available, since Ann Arbor is a geek-heavy town where students can skip class on a whim, let alone for an event as big as Star Wars. Needless to say, I easily got tickets 45 minutes before the 6:00 pm show. I remembered a sold-out theater for the first weekend of the original trilogy re-releases and Phantom, but the opening night showing of Clones was only half-full. Amazing. Apparently, people disliked Ep. 1 more than I anticipated, and decided that the effort to pre-order tickets or stand in line for opening day just wasn't worth it.
  • I took that day off and went to a Doctor's appointment in the morning and then caught the 5:50pm show for only $3.50! Gotta love that "last show before 6pm" discount.
  • ... but some went and saw it at midnight opening night anyways. We're tought buggers in Canada, its because of the cold and the non-sucky beer or something.

    I'll be seeing it tonight with a sizable group of geeks, so I have yet to form an informed opinion of the movie. I'm not expecting much in the way of quality acting from Manequin Skywalker, but if the choice of R.A. Salvatore for the novelization is any indication, the fight scenes will be golden.

  • Skip work? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Soulslayer ( 21435 )
    No need to skip work. My company rented out a mid-afternoon showing on opening day for us. As did a number of other companies in the area such as Origin and Dell.

    Why skip when work will pay you to watch a movie?

    :)
  • Part of my job is providing social activities to a bunch of science/math high school students.

    So I arranged to take a group of them to see Episode 2 and even got to count it as doing part of my job.

  • When Yoda started fighting LOL! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by fluor2 ( 242824 ) on Saturday May 18, 2002 @04:31PM (#3543592)
    I noticed something funny here in Norway. When Yoda started fighiting, everybody in the theatre started laughing! I laughed too! And when he was finished fighting, he took his stick and started looking old again.

    What was lucas thinking of?

    • Re:When Yoda started fighting LOL! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by sessamoid ( 165542 ) on Saturday May 18, 2002 @10:21PM (#3544442)
      I noticed something funny here in Norway. When Yoda started fighiting, everybody in the theatre started laughing! I laughed too! And when he was finished fighting, he took his stick and started looking old again.

      Funny, yes. Unrealistic, no. I remember seeing a demonstration by a competing team's fencing coach/master a long time ago. This guy was one of the best in the world in his prime, but well into his elder years spent most of his time just teaching and walking around with the assistance of a cane.

      However, put a blade in this old guy's hand, and he was suddenly transformed from a decrepit-looking fragile elderly person into a graceful, dangerous foe. I saw him whip one of his own students who was at the time representing the US in the World University Games. After the bout, he picked up his cane and limped back to the sidelines.

    • I put that down to him acutally being old (850+; in Empire he mentions to Luke that "when 900 years old you reach, look this good you will not, hmmm?") and quite fragile.

      But, when he needs to, he can use the force to make the cane redundant, and allow him to bounce around just as fast as he can imagine, and overcome the limitations of his old and fragile body.

      Most of the time he doesn't bother though, 'cos it requires a load of concentration and it's easier to just hobble around with a stick. Being wise, old and a generally serene kind of guy, he doesn't feel the need to rush everywhere at top speed, and is content with that.

      K.
  • I didn't have to. The managers in my department took our whole group out to see it Thursday, and paid for the tickets. :)

    I guess it's one of those "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" things.

  • I took the whole day off, but told my boss I was going to play golf (guess what he loves to do!). Started playing golf at 9am, and my buddy and I went to see AotC afterwards. If you're going to waste a vacation/sick day to do something, you might as well make a day out of it. Thursday was the only good day of the week to go play here in Maine, so it all worked out.

    We got there just as the movie was starting. The ushers didn't have a flashlight, but I had my Photon red LED flashlight, and caught an aisle seat right away. I'm going to shoot the guy with the bladder condition that sat in the middle of my row. Jerk got up 5 times, which means he also came back 5 times.

    The theater was only about half full, and the ticket guy said they had not been very busy all day.

  • I went to see AOTC Thursday afternoon. I didn't knock off work for that, I actually had a dental appointment and had the rest of the afternoon off anyway. (The dental appointment caused my headache instead of the half-fuzzy film, but that's beside the point.) I attended the 4PM showing and there were maybe 10, 12 other people in the 40+ seat auditorium - and probably half of those were children under the age of 10. I left around 7:00 and lines for the next showing at 7:15 were still quite thin. That's terrible business for a hyped new movie opening in the middle of the week during college spring break, in a medium sized mall, at the only theater in a town - on an 85-degree day in late May! Just by looking around my community I'm surprised that the movie has done so well.

  • Fortunately, our management gives flextime. I attended the first regular showing, which was near lunchtime. Barley worth the matinee cost, due to the dull movie. Teatre not very crowded either.
  • Well, I just got home after watching the movie. If I'd had the option I would rather have worked. It sucked.

    Jar-Jar Binks must die or I must get a job.

  • No. (Score:2)

    by blair1q ( 305137 )
    No, I stayed here.

    Go ahead. Reboot your computer.

    I dare you.

    --Blair

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