By JAMES BELL
Hays Post

Tickets for the seventh Star Wars movie went on sale this week, crashing ticket purchasing websites around the county, but for the local Hays theater, the opening was only slightly higher than an average movie release.

The Mall 8 Theatre, 2918 Vine in Hays, currently owned by Starplex Cinemas, didn’t have any unexpected issues and tickets are still available.

“There are plenty,” said Tim Schulte, general manager. “Nothing’s really happening here.”

Without the big push for tickets, there were no issues for the two websites that sell tickets for the local theater — starplexcinemas.com and movietickets.com.

“I don’t think ours had any issue. … From what I know, nothing really happened on our end,” Schulte said.

In Hays, movie goers usually wait until closer to the release date, rather than buy when tickets become available.

Sales are “better than your average movie, obviously, but they don’t usually sell until we get closer. Since we’re two months out, people aren’t coming yet. Generally, for us anyway, it’s the week of, or two or three weeks before, they will really start cranking out,” Schulte said. “Even with Avengers, with how big that was supposed to be, it didn’t do much until two weeks before it came out and then everyone started buying tickets.”

Starplex will have a 7 p.m. showing in both 2D and 3D on opening night Dec. 17.

The trailer that accompanied the opening ticket sales has already been viewed almost 28 million times on YouTube as of Wednesday morning.