At 2:45 a.m. on a recent weekday, the AMC Lincoln Square on Manhattan\u2019s Upper West Side showed none of the usual signs of winding down for the night.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hours after the city that never sleeps had mostly gone home to bed, a crowd of eager New Yorkers was standing in line to buy buckets of popcorn.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Groups of happy moviegoers were hanging out in the lobby after earlier showings of \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d chatting, while others headed up the escalators, Red Bulls in hand, to the theater\u2019s IMAX auditorium \u2014 pumped to watch a nearly three-hour Christopher Nolan film<\/a> in the pre-dawn hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n The real-life scene was strange enough \u2014\u00a0particularly in 2026, long after the last of the all-nighter grindhouses of 42nd Street bit the dust and midnight premieres became a quaint relic, and, of course, not all that many years after the movie theater was deemed dead. <\/p>\n The early morning movie times have taken off more than ever recently. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n Which is not entirely wrong, considering the AMC Kips Bay location will close later this year thanks to the property owner\u2019s decision to early terminate the lease.<\/p>\n Stranger still were the lengths people were willing to go to snag a seat \u2014\u00a0with some paying thousands on the resale market.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s official: film culture has entered its witching-hour era \u2014\u00a0with people rearranging sleep, work, transit, caffeine and even common sense just to experience a film on the right screen, like this one.<\/p>\n And at theaters like the AMC Lincoln Square \u2014\u00a0people are fighting to get in.<\/p>\n Joe Col\u00f3n, 29, a marketing specialist living in the city, slept from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. the day before his late-night screening of \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d and spent the evening out on the town, arriving at the Upper West Side theater 15 minutes before the 3 a.m. show began.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMy faith never wavered,\u201d he told The Post afterward, when asked if he\u2019d remained awake throughout. \u201cIt also helps that it\u2019s pretty hard to fall asleep in the biggest IMAX theater in the country with some of the loudest speakers I\u2019ve ever heard.\u201d<\/p>\n Col\u00f3n said he\u2019d seen people on TikTok \u201clegitimately buying wheelchairs\u201d \u2014 even \u201cSeinfeld\u201d never went this far \u2014 in order to sit in accessible spots at sold-out showings in the packed house. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI low-key respect the commitment,\u201d he admitted. \u201cThat is insane.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDune: Part Three\u201d is already selling out movie tickets for December showings in the wee hours of the morning. Getty Images for Warner Bros. Pictures<\/p>\n Yes, it is. Movie fans have officially lost their minds.\u00a0<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the first comeback that moviegoing has experienced since 2020 that can be attributed, in part, to Nolan \u2014\u00a0those who remember the summer of Barbenheimer, back in 2023, can attest.\u00a0<\/p>\n But that cultural phenomenon has nothing on the one surrounding Nolan\u2019s latest at Lincoln Square \u2014\u00a0a schedule-wrecking, ticket-scrambling craze that has rolled straight from the ancient eastern Mediterranean into the mythical desert set of \u201cDune: Part Three.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Earlier this week, fully grown adults trying to score coveted IMAX 70mm tickets for the latest film in the revived sci-fi franchise formed a line wrapped around the block<\/a> \u2014 with some arriving at the crack of dawn and others sacrificing a workday for the chance at an opening-night viewing since the uptown theater is the only one in NYC to offer this IMAX size.<\/p>\n An opening night that won\u2019t happen, mind you, until December.\u00a0<\/p>\n As they did for \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d digital ticketing platforms buckled under demand, and scarce premium-format tickets began showing up on resale sites.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some eBay listings were asking close to $1000<\/a> for two last-row Lincoln Square tickets.<\/p>\n On social media, users also circulated claims that one buyer had reportedly walked away with roughly 80 \u201cDune\u201d tickets<\/a>, prompting other moviegoers to demand that AMC crack down on bulk buying before blockbuster tickets become another resale free-for-all.<\/p>\n AMC CEO Adam Aron acknowledged the issue in a post on X<\/a>, writing of the \u201cDune\u201d ticket launch: \u201cWe thought we were ready, but we weren\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Ryan Noonan, vice president of corporate communications and public relations at AMC Theatres, promised to The Post that these round-the-clock showings aren\u2019t a gimmick, but rather a necessity.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not the norm, and it\u2019s not feasible at every location,\u201d he said, \u201cbut there\u2019s always a little extra magic when a title resonates so strongly with moviegoers that our traditional operating hours aren\u2019t enough to meet demand.\u201d<\/p>\n An eBay listing asks close to $1000 for two last-row Lincoln Square tickets to \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d on Aug. 21. ebay.com<\/p>\n Lincoln Square has become its own special case, Noonan said \u2014\u00a0the location is used to these late-night showings in its IMAX 70mm auditorium, but typically on opening weekend only.\u00a0<\/p>\n With \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d the late nights have kept going and going.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSeveral weekends removed from the film\u2019s debut, and we\u2019re still operating those overnight hours on weekends \u2026 demand continues to support it,\u201d Noonan explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n