Ned/KFMW
Ahhhh the midnight release party were always a fun time.
Imagine not getting a video game, movie, music album, etc UNTIL MIDNIGHT…at a store or at a theater! Now you can pre-download stuff and whatever game you want is right on your console, you don’t even have to leave your house! Sure sounds great, but….eh…..
I’m gonna say it…ready? BACK IN MY DAY! Ughhh I said it…video games and movies had special events called ‘Midnight Releases.’ A new movie would not hit the big screen until midnight, a video game couldn’t be bought until midnight! Stores and movie theaters would make these things EVENTS with costumes, prizes, people camping and waiting in line, and in some cases be showing the previous movie or even have the brand new game on a demo station for people to play in line.
I worked at Gamestop for years and there was sure something special about the midnight release. You could see the excitement of the people waiting to get home to be the first to pop in that disc and play! One of the biggest I remember was Halo 3, there was a line around the block, people dressed as Chief, pizza being delivered to the line, it was just a cool community event.
I saw the midnight release of ‘The Dark Knight’ and it is easily one of my most favorite movie watching experiences. For some reason, power for the ENTIRE BLOCK blacked out including the movie theater, and they had 6 sold out screens for the Dark Knight! The theater quickly got 2 semi’s loaded with generators to power Studio 28! People were dressed as Batman, they were showing Batman Begins along the outside wall…I mean, it looked like Las Vegas…it was an experience!
Midnight releases still exist in some manner, but they are not NEARLY what they were…not it’s just get game and go. Movie theaters do pre-shows the day before so a first showing at midnight doesn’t exist anymore. Nowadays though, we just pre-buy it online then it unlocks at midnight, or wait for the movie to start streaming….bleh….what a let down, where is the memory in that?
Go experience things folks, no one remembers that GOLDEN MOMENT when a movie went streaming and….that’s it.
