Well, there's always Friday... aka how preplanning can avoid crowd misconduct

It seems my zest to see Iron Man at an advanced screening was a little premature. Let me just say that I'm not writing this piece as a case of sour apples. Let me explain the situation.

Last week I entered a Village Voice contestant for an advanced screening of Iron Man at AMC Loews Kips Bay Theatre . I enjoy attending advance screenings and have done so before. I recieved an email for me and a guest to attend. However seating was not reserved and it was overbooked. This is not a problem, this was stated. I understand this. My problem is this, for a 7:30pm screening, I waited from 6pm til that time only to find out that they were taking 200 people. That was the capacity. Thats not the problem. I had waited a long time, but, thems the breaks, so to speak. My problem is this. During my wait, servals times were head counts conducted. Several times did people ask for the capacity and were not told. Now the capacity doesn't change, if the theatre can hold 200 and your letting 200 hundred in, then fine, but inform the people! The number of seats didn't change from the time I was standing online, and there were quite a few wrapped around the block behind me. If we were informed earlier of where the cutoff was, there really wouldn't be a fuss. Instead, due to mismanagement, several people were angry that they didn't get in. That's understandable, but then they were treated in a rude way and dismissed. If people were told the capacity while waiting in line, if they were aware of where the cut off was, then they knew what they were getting into. Instead, several people waited for an hour and a half or more in ignorant bliss fully believing they were going to see the film. Keeping people in the dark only leads to agrievation.

In future events I hope that the people sponsoring these screenings will be more prepared so situations like this can be avoided. Yeah, it sucks I didn't get to see Iron Man, but I'll see it Friday. The bad taste in my mouth from the poor handling of the crowd however, will not be remedied so quickly.