Posted on: Wednesday, May 23, 2001

Theater chains pitch advance 'Pearl' tickets

By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai'i's two major theater chains have been selling advanced tickets for the "Pearl Harbor" movie for about a week, and sales have been brisk for one chain, but slow for the other.

Consolidated Theatres and Signature Theatres have waged their own war over the opening of the big-budget movie. Each chain is timing the film's debut with the opening of new mega-plexes and each will have special 7:55 a.m. showings Friday to coincide with the moment of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor.

At Consolidated, sales have been "robust," said spokeswoman Eileen Mortenson. She did not have numbers of how many tickets have been sold.

Mortenson said the sales do not include the new Ward Entertainment Center 16-plex that opens Friday. Tickets at those theaters go on sale this afternoon at 5, she said.

"Pearl Harbor" will be shown in 19 Consolidated theaters on Oahu, she said.

At Signature's Dole Cannery theaters, ticket sales have been slow, said assistant manager David Lum Lee. He said about 150 tickets per showing have been sold for Friday, but each theater holds about 400 people.

Signature's 10-screen complex at Windward Mall also opens Friday, but Lum Lee said tickets haven't gone on sale yet at those theaters.

He acknowledged that in the war over ticket sales, Consolidated may have the edge.

"It's either that they don't know (about the advanced sales) or everybody wants to check out the new Consolidated theater coming out on that same day. That could be playing a major factor," Lum Lee said.

Officials at Wallace Theatres, Hawai'i's other major theater chain, could not be reached for comment yesterday.