The next day -- one week before opening -- advance Phantom Menace tickets went on sale at 3 p.m. EDT. Both the MovieFone Web site and 777-FILM phone system promptly buckled under the crush of fanatics. MovieFone put out another press release Wednesday blaming local phone companies for phone errors that greeted callers with the un-Force-like recording "all circuits are busy." MORE >>
Star Wars Scalpers Go Online
MovieFone relaunched its site earlier this week,
boasting in a press release on Tuesday that it was
"Just in Time for Release of Star Wars: Episode
1." But ready it was not.