UCR Summer Session Students Fired Up For Free Showing of The Dark Knight Rises

Associated Students Program Board hands out 385 free tickets for midnight screening of blockbuster

By Ross French on July 18, 2012

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (www.ucr.edu)  —  The hundreds of students lined up outside the Highlander Union Building at the University of California, Riverside Wednesday had just one thing on their mind. They wanted to see Batman, and they wanted to see him for free.

The UCR Associated Students Program Board quietly announced that they would be hosting an exclusive midnight screening of the blockbuster film The Dark Knight Rises at the nearby University Village Theater on Thursday for students enrolled in Summer Session classes. Students began queuing up at mid-morning at the first-floor Welcome Desk to claim one of the 385 free tickets scheduled to be distributed at 2 p.m.

“We had so many students in line that it was beginning to be a fire hazard,” said Danielle Espino, campus activities coordinator. “So we started distributing tickets at 1:15, and by 2:30 they were gone.”

Espino said she was pleasantly surprised by the response, especially since they were very limited in the amount of promotion they could do.

“The movie studio, Warner Brothers, was very strict with us about what we could and could not do to promote the event,” Espino said. “We weren’t allowed to use any social media to market it. We just sent an email out to our summer session students.”

But that didn’t stop the students themselves from posting about the event on Twitter and Facebook. By early Tuesday evening the word was out.

Historically, ASPB has not held events during the summer months, but Espino said they saw an opportunity with the expected blockbuster and a large number of students enrolled in summer classes.

“We’ve never sold out an event this quickly, even during the regular school year,” Espino said. “This could be the springboard that brings us more summer programming for UCR students.”

The Dark Knight Rises, directed by Christopher Nolan, is the final installment of his Batman trilogy and is expected to be one of the highest grossing films in history.

Archived under: Inside UCR, Associated Students Program Board, Danielle Espino, dark knight rises, Highlander Union Building, midnight screening

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