Twenty-somethings Justin Joseph and Anthony Ortega sat triumphantly on the stairs of Manhattan’s AMC Lincoln Square 13, spools of “Dune: Part Three” tickets laid out beside them. They had arrived at 7:15 a.m. to battle the 1500-foot-long line of hopefuls clamoring for tickets to see the film in the rare, premium 70-millimeter Imax format, and won.
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Moviegoers at the front of the line told me they arrived at midnight, while other early birds arrived between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. By 11 a.m. — around half an hour before the box office opened — the line wrapped around the block and then some.
Earlier this summer, Imax 70-millimeter Imax tickets for “The Odyssey” spurred a ticket-buying frenzy, leading to platform crashes and resellers flipping seats for $165. After that debacle, some movie lovers realized buying in person was more reliable than battling it out online.
The in-person Dune line marks the reversal of one larger movie-going trend: the rise of advance digital ticketing. At AMC, 73% of tickets were purchased online in 2025, per the company’s SEC filings, up from 8.5% in 2013 and 53% in 2020. But as blockbuster 70-millimeter Imax movies like “Dune” and “The Odyssey” become eventized, the industry has reinvented one of the problems advance ticketing was meant to solve: hordes of fans camping out for tickets to the biggest movies.
The lines remain an anomaly in the wider exhibition business, spurred by demand for the 70-millimeter Imax format, which is only shown in around 25 theaters in the US. Daniel Loria, the SVP of content and editorial director at data provider the Box Office Company, noted that this summer’s record-breaking “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” which didn’t get the same eventized Imax rollout as “The Odyssey” dominated those screens, did not bring the same fervor.
“You want to see Spider-Man, you could see Spider-Man,” Loria said. With the Odyssey, he said, fans wanted “one auditorium of one specific theater for one specific movie.”
Jerry Walsh, who had tried and failed to get “Odyssey” tickets, arrived at the Upper West Side theatre at 6 a.m. armed with folding chairs. “I’m not going to miss it again,” he said. Zac Acton, 27, spent six or seven hours attempting to get online “Odyssey” tickets; to avoid that “nightmare,” he used his day off to travel to AMC Lincoln Square and join the line.
“It’s pretty insane, but it’s also cool,” Acton said. When reached for comment, AMC directed Business Insider to an X post from CEO Adam Aron.
“There was much discussion internally ahead of and preparing for the Dune 3 launch,” Aron wrote. “We thought we were ready, but we weren’t.”
Emmanuel Ruiz, 27, and Luis Delcarpio, 32, were both toting laptops and in “work from line” mode. Ruiz said he had gotten two sets of tickets for the “Odyssey” from the ticket kiosks in the AMC lobby and was back for Dune seats.
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Ruiz said the last time he camped out for tickets was the “Hunger Games” midnight premiere.
“I feel like it’s pretty different because Hunger Games, everybody was dressed up. Everybody was really excited. Here, it’s just like everybody’s here for business,” Ruiz said.
Some of that attitude might come from the simple fact that the film isn’t out until December, making ticket purchases now an investment. Today’s theaters are also not designed for these rushes.
“Since 2010, very notably, there is no new or even mildly new theater out there that is designed with a massive box office space to accommodate this big footfall in the lobby,” said Loria.
For Brandon Herman, 50, the line resurrected a moviegoing model he found himself missing. Herman grew up in the “Star Wars” prequel lines and “Harry Potter” queues, making lifelong line friends.
“I never thought I’d actually see it again, but I got to the end of the line with the biggest smile on my face,” Herman said.
