Nerd Alert! Tickets for Jan 9 Beijing Opening of Latest 'Star Wars' On Sale Now

If you just must be among the first batch of Beijingers to see the latest Star Wars, act fast: tickets are now on sale for the January 9 opening at cinemas across town.

Earlier this month Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens opened to rave reviews and record breaking box office totals in nearly every corner of the world ... except China, of course, whose censors needed more time to rattle off a few million pirated DVD copies before it came out in the cinemas,  no, I mean which had some other reason for delaying the film, perhaps to splice Fan Bingbing and Jackie Chan into a scene with Jabba the Hutt or something.

Fans of the of the beloved sci-fi series in the PRC are understandably antsy for the new installment’s January 9 premiere, and they’re bound to turn to The Dark Side if they have to wait even longer because the hotly-anticipated flick’s tickets sell out opening day.

Many cinemas around town are having midnight showings of the film (A.K.A. 12.05am on January 9). We're not going to detail which ones, but suffice it to say a bunch of them.

247Cinema has the tickets for sale and an excellent bilingual interface for us laowai with poor Chinese reading skills.

Megabox in Sanlitun has tickets for sale now on their website (RMB 130-150) as does Wanda Cinemas (RMB 75-RMB 110). Unfortunately, you'll probably need to read Chinese (or ask a Chinese-speaking friend) to help you book as the English interfaces are lacking.

If you are both a Star Wars and a WeChat geek, you can book using MTime’s app or Wepiao. These use GPS to find theaters in the vicinity.

Actually purchasing tickets through these means may be a bit daunting for many Wechat novice foreigners. But it’s actually a simple process. First, open the “wallet” function on WeChat. After that, scroll down to the Weipiao portal. Screenings and even specific seats can then be selected, while payment is equally convenient via WeChat wallet. From there, a verification number is sent to the users WeChat account, which can then be inputted at the cinema’s specialized vending machines, dispensing the tickets.

This cutting-edge ticket purchasing is as easy as hacking a pesky Storm Trooper with a trusty lightsaber. Give it a try, so that you can be sure to catch all the intergalactic action on opening day.

In the mean time, you may want to indulge your Star Wars fantasies at one of these warm-up events around Beijing.

Additional reporting from Laura Su.

Image: Wikipedia