We have news of another midnight horror story, but this time it happened on a digital screen at the Edgewater Multiplex Cinemas in NJ, USA. Rudy B tells us:

I would like to bring to your attention to a horrible incident which occurred at the midnight premiere of "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones" in a DLP-Digital Projection screen at the Edgewater Multiplex Cinemas in NJ.

Upon arriving at the theater nearly three hours before the screening, I found the staff to be in utter darkness regarding any plans or forethought to receiving possibly six hundred patrons for the midnight screenings of "Star Wars Attack of the Clones". The theater lobby was not prepared to accept pre-purchased ticket holder verses general public resulting in a line running out to the front door with patrons awaiting further instruction.

Finally after nearly an hour of misdirection, designated areas were established to control the patrons and secure people with actual tickets. My four guests and I had opted to view the digital version of AOTC. We were seated approximately twenty minutes before the scheduled start of the midnight screening. That's when the evening took a turn for the worst.

The theater lights dimmed and re-lit approximately two dozen times, bringing a roar of relief then disgust from the ever-growing inpatient audience. At one point the sound system blasted at high decibels the well-known main title music of the movie with no picture on the screen just to be quickly silenced.

The projectionist obviously was having technical problems with the film. Which I guess is understandable with a newly arrived release. However, it is unforgiving to have an inexperienced operator attempt to single-handily resolve the problem. I was quite astonished to discover that with an event of such significant attendance and potential record theater revenue, there was no digital technician assigned to be on hand. Also the theater (#8) that was scheduled to premier the DLP version of AOTC had a prior viewing scheduled of "Changing Lanes" with no "pre-test" time period schedule before admitting patrons into the theater. It is deplorable that a major northeast venue with 16 Screens has no full time technician assigned to troubleshoot such situations.

At no point was there a formal announcement made or any theater representative came to explain to the audience the malfunction. The only message provided to the crowd was by a single user stating "the movie will start in a few minutes". After nearly over an hour of this insanity, patrons began to seek out management for an explanation. A group gathered in the lobby's Customer Service Counter and began to complain to a sole attendant. He was uncertain of what the procedures were and frantically was calling on the phone for assistance. The theater finally decided to give out two "return guest passes" to each ticket holding patron requesting a refund. No Cash Refunds, just the coupons! Needless to say it was an angry mob scene.

The theater management team exhibited very poor customer services and at times refused to be accountable for providing patrons with information. I personally witnessed employees removing their name tags and uniforms vest so not to be approached with questions. Thank you for destroying a twenty-year long tradition of viewing the premiere night showing of the Stars Wars story with my family and I. Despite your "guest coupon" refund, I will have to think long and hard before patronizing one of you establishments in the near future.

and Victor adds:

There are hardcore fans, and there are HARDCORE fans. Last night my fandom, patience, and tolerance were put to the test thanks to the wonderful advance in film technology known as digital film. I'd like to say the evening started like any other, although I can hardly recall the last time I got to a theater (Multiplex Cinemas in Edgewater) 3 hours early for a film. Unfortunately, that time could have been better spent waiting at home, and walking to the neighborhood theater, rather than driving over an hour to get to a theater playing AOTC at midnight in it's digital format.

Once we got in the theater the movie "started" a good ten minutes late. Although saying the movie actually started is a bit of an overstatement. For 20 minutes the projector operators did nothing but demonstrate their excellent talent at dimming the lights and bringing them back up. It didn't take long for us to realize something was wrong, although it took nearly two hours before the theater admitted they had a problem. Instead, they opted to see what happens when 400 or so tired people look like when they get angry.

After an hour of light flashing and curtain drawing there are only a good 70 or so people left, everyone else was fed up (reminder, we're all sitting in the same theater at 2 in the MORNING still waiting for a movie to START) and all of a sudden the sound comes on. No picture, just sound. But instead of realizing they were playing to a very spoiler-sensitive crowd, they insisted on letting the audio run. I can tell you the first 5 minutes of the movie SOUNDED awfully impressive, but it was 5 minutes I'd rather not have ruined. I'm the one who just paid $10 for a ticket and I want to watch ALL the parts of the movie thank you!

Eventually they give up, refuse technical help from others in the audience that have plenty of experience with digital projectors, and tell us that we can go watch the basic film version of the movie at 2:45. If I had wanted to watch it on standard film I would have gone to the theater across the street, not the state. Me and two other people decided to stick it out in hopes that the projector got fixed.

Apparently something went right because around 2:30AM the first 10 seconds of the movie played on the screen. I can say it was a very clear 10 seconds, although I'd rather they have played the whole movie. Unfortunately they decided to "beta test" the camera more and managed to extract us from the digital theater with the aid of some police officers. Not wanting to leave without seeing our movie we watched it on film. It was a good movie, but I paid for, and stayed up for, digital video and instead had to settle for a compromise.

Let's hope the Multiplex Cinemas in Edgewater have ironed out their teething problems with their digital system.