Comic-Con 2011 SOLD OUT

[IronBrig4]

You guys! *pant pant* YOU GUYS!

In case any of you were thinking about going to Comic-Con this summer, forget about it because every single pass sold out within 11 hours after registration opened. The full passes with preview night sold out during the show last year and the other passes were scheduled to be sold online. Registration for last year's show was very quietly announced and I was able to get my pass without any difficulty. They decided to make a big deal out of it this year so everybody was anticipating it. They had tried selling passes in October, and again in December, but the server kept getting overwhelmed. In fact, at one point they were getting 250 hits per second.

A couple weeks ago, they announced that registration would start today at 0900 PST. I tried to get a four-day pass at exactly 0900 and the server nearly crashed again. I went out for the day, thinking I'd just get my pass when I got back from my date (which went well, btw). When I got back I saw that all the four-day passes were sold out, along with the Friday and Saturday passes. I was able to get a Sunday pass, and those sold out just a few minutes later.

I wonder what made Comic-Con so popular within the past few years. You used to be able to buy tickets at the door. Now I know to just get my passes for 2012 at this year's show.

 

[Wasabi Poptart]

I think it's because SDCC has more appeal to a broader audience than it did in years past. Not only that, but being a nerd/geek is cool now. When I was younger, no one I knew ever heard of Dr. Who except my parents because they watched it with me on our local PBS station. Now look at the following it has on BBC America. Look at the success of comic book-based movies recently. My dad never read Iron Man, Fantastic Four, or Ghost Rider, but he watched all of the movies when they came out (God help him with that last one - sheesh).
Also, there are more big name stars on the panels and ones who just drop in to say a few words about their movie in between panels. When we went in 2005, we got to see Jack Black perform a mini-concert that was not scheduled at all. In 2008 Hugh Jackman made an unscheduled appearance to promote the Wolverine movie (I would have killed someone to be there!). I think a lot of people anticipate things like that happening, too.

 

[IronBrig4]

Yeah, that makes sense. I started going to Comic-Con back in the late 90s, when the only comic book movies were Batman & Robin and Blade. They also used to have lots of booths for comic books that were perused by stereotypical comic book nerds and smelly-bearded Warhammer players. Truth be told, it was NOT a good time to be a nerd.

Incidentally, I'm guessing some people are pissed because they couldn't get tickets. It looks like SDCC's Wikipedia page got wiped.

 

[ThatNickGuy]

Damn. And I was thinking of going this year, if I could save up the money. Maybe another year.

I think it's become a bigger thing in the last few years because Hollywood's using it more and more as a testing bed with previews and advance screenings. It's become a bigger than not just for comics, but now for movies. Any kind of geeky movie, not just comics, is showcased now.

Oop, guess I was kinda ninja'd there. Ah well.