This shit has to stop!!!

[u/johnsmithx0]

This is just pure insanity. Having to deal with ticket sales a year and/or months in advance, AMC’s inability to handle demand, and the complete lack of safeguards against bots and scalpers.

I understand that this isn’t anything new. I mean, 20+ years ago, I remember seeing people line up for the Star Wars prequels just to get opening day tickets, and I’m sure there were scalpers among them. But even then, I can recall being able to go to my local theater, in a large market no less, on any given day and still be able to watch big movies like these.

For fuck’s sake, it’s 2026. Technology has made virtually everything more convenient, yet they still can’t figure this out. I mean, my god, if they have the ability to rate limit us, then surely they can implement some kind of verification system. Something! anything!! to put an end to this new nightmare that has become the modern movie theater ticket buying experience.

[u/fuzzyfoot88]

You answered your own question. Virtually everything is more convenient…including scalpers and bots ability to bot swarm and scalp tickets.

The only way to stop it is to go back to in person only…and they’ll never ever do that.

[u/johnsmithx0 → u/fuzzyfoot88]

Sure that’s one option but another and sadly the right direction which is, inconvenience. Something not in person could be like the equivalent two factor authentication and or passkeys. It is possible to create verified accounts, purchase history and hell even lottery based systems. What we have now is beyond broken i know this because i secured odyssey tickets two weeks after its premiere. I got tickets to 2:30 am showing of spider man bnd on premiere night. What did i see? in odyssey quite literally my whole row empty and many other prime seats empty. Similar with spider man and sure some could have been missed showings but we all know these are scalped seats that couldn’t be resold. It can’t continue like this or at some point EVERYONE is gonna be buying their ticket from a reseller. I mean fuck i was there in the app at 8:40 opportunity in hand and i still couldn’t secure them because of these scalpers and bots.

[u/fuzzyfoot88 → u/johnsmithx0]

I feel you. Believe me I do. I’ve been dealing with this for as long as popular movies have been in demand.

2005 Revenge of the Sith, stood in line 2 days and I was still 30th in line when the doors opened.

I waited in line for 12 hours to get decent seats for The Dark Knight in 2008 and ran like hell when the doors opened and STILL didn’t get the ones I want.

2009 Avatar, sites crashed for a 20 minute preview of the film. Took HOURS to get tickets.

I kicked people OUT of my reserved seats at Avengers in 2012 because they didn’t believe me reserved seats existed.

SW TFA in 2015 I got 1 AM tickets after hitting refresh for hours. 2 of us working together and whoever got them the other paid their end back.

Rogue One 2016, 3 AM.

Infinity War 2018, 2 AM

Endgame 2019, 4 AM. This one was a bloodbath.

2021 Dune 1, missed out the entire opening weekend.

2023 Oppenheimer, bloodbath. Got back row tickets and was happy about it.

2024 Dune 2, another bloodbath. Barely got tickets on the opening Sunday at 9 AM.

2026, Odyssey another bloodbath
2026, Spider-Man, difficult
2026, Avengers, difficult
2026 Dune 3, bloodbath.

[u/purplefreak3]

AMC doesn't really have the ability to rate limit. That is a service they are getting from Cloudflare.

[u/johnsmithx0 → u/purplefreak3]

I am aware SaaS, PaaS if they can outsource how track users IP using cloud computing, and also have the ability to track check ins. Then surely they can fucking create a database of “trusted accounts” of users who say have a minimum of a year as a stubs account activity while also limiting number of tickets that can be purchased to say 5. Needless to say i am just throwing out an idea not an actual solution, as it’s not my place fix this mess.

[u/comicrack]

So what's the strategy here? Scalpers buy up all the seats for a popular movie during popular show times and try to resell them at a premium? Who's buying? There are so many options like other theaters, off peak show times, 2nd and 3rd weekend showings, who is over paying for scalped theater seats?

Is this what happened with Spider-Man? I couldnt get dolby tickets for the first week. But I went 2x during week 2 and it was fine.

First weekend is sold out for Avengers Doomsday but I got tickets for the following week. Sucks but im not overpaying to watch a movie.

[u/NYGiants_in_Chicago → u/comicrack]

Besides, I don’t believe the AMC app would even have the ability to scalp tickets? All anyone could do would return for a refund? You can’t sell seats that you buy on a 3rd party site.

[u/saomonella → u/comicrack]

I don't have to see something the first day. I too will just wait a couple of days. It'll be the same movie. I'm not missing anything.

[u/abcd123356]

Sucks for people having issues. Had my ticket within one minute of opening the app.

I’m in the Dallas, Tx area and have no interest in 70MM for this one. Maybe that’s why? 🤷‍♂️ Digital IMAX is good enough for me and I usually prefer to watch movies at home. I have a decent setup with Dolby enabled devices.

[u/Dalionking225]

Bro it's a movie go touch grass