Eclipse fever hits Pakistan

Karachi’s Universe Cineplex was flocked with teenagers - currently on summer vacation - to see the first show of Eclipse on Friday afternoon.

Cineplex’s lobby was packed with girls eager to get their hands on coveted tickets to the third film in The Twilight Saga, which stars actors Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner.

Hamna Ali Khan, at Cineplex with a bunch of girlfriends said, “I’m a big Twilight fan. I have seen Twilight around 15 or 16 times and I saw New Moon a couple of times. I hope this one is going to be the best.”

Mahnoor Shah was accompanied by a family member and her best friend. When asked what attracted her to The Twilight Saga, she said, “The characters. The story. Everything!”

Fans of the original series of books, written by Stephanie Meyer, were also present at Cineplex.  Nimra Sattar told The Express Tribune, “I was drawn to the series through the book itself. I have read all the books in the series and seen all the movies. This one (Eclipse) has to be better than the rest.”

The fans, which have been dubbed ‘Twi-hards’ globally, are  extremely dedicated. One of them was Ayesha Bilal, who has read the books, watched the first two films and had already seen a pirated print of Eclipse on DVD. “I have seen it before, but I expected it to be a little better.”

Fans have bought tickets to the film, which opened a week after its international release, well in advance.

Zainab Khan said she bought the ticket a week ago. “Twilight was good. New Moon was better. I hope this one is going to be the best and I am going to love it.”

The franchise’s dedicated fan-following has ensured sales of tickets. According to Kaiser Rafiq, the director of operations, “All the weekend shows of Eclipse are mostly sold out.” Rafiq compared the response to eclipse to Bollywood blockbusters such as My Name is Khan and Aamir Khan’s 3 Idiots. He told The Express Tribune, “There is definitely a bigger demand for Eclipse (than for any other Twilight film). It is on for at least eight weeks.”

Joel, who works at the Cineplex counter, said that the film was also bringing in a male audience. He said, “Mixed groups of people are coming to view it and it is fully booked, we are busy with advance bookings as four shows are on every day.”

Meanwhile, the film is being received well in Lahore and Rawalpindi as well. According to Lahore’s DHA cinema, Eclipse is the “most popular film of the summer” and 80 per cent of the tickets for Friday’s show and approximately 45 per cent seats for Saturday’s show were sold. DHA cinema will be showing Eclipse till July 15, and “possibly even for the week after that.”

A representative of the DHA cinema told The Express Tribune: “We screened New Moon and now Eclipse and the demand for both the films has been about the same. People hear the name and come to watch it; often they cannot find tickets and have to return to buy them.”

While Cinepax in Rawalpindi said that people had been inquiring about Eclipse’s release, they were not able to assess what the response was to the film.

With additional reporting by Maha Amin.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 10th, 2010.