They came costumed and Cullen-crazed. They bypassed bedtimes for Bella. They were dragged, they were shameless, they came in secrecy.
They reread, they rewatched, they remembered. They were divided. They stuck with Team Edward. They rallied for the underdog.
They set records.
They, the millions of page-turning, faux-fang-flaunting, “Twilight”-obsessed fans, made “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” the No. 1 advance ticket-selling movie in Fandango.com history shortly after 8 p.m. Nov. 14 — more than five days before the movie was released.
They have since surpassed all presale ticket records, according to Harry Medved, Fandango.com spokesman.
“The fan base has exploded,” Medved said.
Two hours before the 12:01 a.m. showing Friday, Regal Gainesville Cinema 14 sold out 15 showings of the latest cinema installment of the “Twilight” saga.
Medved attributed the increase in popularity to moviegoers who found love at first bite last November with the cinema debut of Edward Cullen, a golden-eyed, Volvo-driving, vegetarian vampire.
But in round two, Bella, the love-struck mortal, may find herself a new beau as she lands herself in a monster love triangle between Robert Pattinson, her brooding vampire boyfriend, and Taylor Lautner, the suddenly sultry werewolf next door.
“Instead of one guy Bella’s crazy about, there’s two hunky guys that are crazy about her,” Medved said. “I guess you could say there’s more eye candy for the women this time.”
And for Megan Barthle, who attended one of the 15 sold-out showings early Friday morning, there was too much eye candy to choose from.
“You can’t choose,” the UF psychology senior said. “I want them both.”
Barthle donned a handmade T-shirt professing her uncertainty with the word “3some” splattered across her chest in paint.
And vampires weren’t the only ones with blood on the brain Friday morning.
Clay Gibbons, community development coordinator with LifeSouth Community Blood Centers, estimated the “New Moon”-themed blood drive attracted about 60 blood donations in the theater’s parking lot with its “Team Edward” and “Team Jacob” Blood Mobiles.
Andrea Andrews, a 22-year-old UF student and "Team Edward" member, wore a black T-shirt with Pattinson’s pale face emblazoned on the front. She said she felt more like a 13-year-old girl as she stood in a line 17 people long to donate blood just more than an hour before her 12:40 a.m. show.
“Read the books, and then you’ll understand [the obsession],” Andrews said, as she bent her knees, folded her hands and squealed in anticipation for the movie she had been waiting to see since she bought her ticket more than three weeks ago. “Personally, as college students, you don’t read for pleasure, and this is the first time I’ve read for pleasure since middle school.”
