As theater employees prepared film, cleaned seats and got ready for the influx of Batman fans at last night's midnight premiere of The Dark Knight, Two-Face flipped a filet of salmon on the gas grill outside, while Batman, the Joker and the Penguin set up the Bat Signal.
Wait.
Scratch that.
State College Area High School senior Chris Hollobaugh flipped a filet of salmon on the gas grill outside, while Praveen Pandian (freshman-marketing and music), Paul George (freshman-design technology), and State High seniors William Brotzman and Patrick Miller, set up the Bat Signal.
The group of friends had been sitting outside the Premiere Theatre College 9 since around 4 p.m., grilling and watching previous Batman films in preparation for the midnight showing of The Dark Knight.
All showings of the film sold out last night at both the Premiere Theatre 12 and Premiere College 9, Manager Mike Sunday said.
"We're expecting about 500 people in line," Sunday said.
The first time they dressed up for a movie, 300, the theater manager was impressed, George said.
"He said if we kept dressing up they would give us free tickets," George said, smiling through Joker makeup.
Since the first time they sported costumes, the group has dressed up for Spiderman 3, Pirates of the Carribean: At Worlds End, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and now The Dark Knight, he said.
George said he and his friends had been planning the campout for about three weeks, making costumes and preparing the homemade Bat Signal -- an old stage light -- and avoiding hearing spoilers about the film, George said.
Another group of friends didn't think it was important to come too early to stand in line for the film.
"It's not like it's Paternoville," Justin Vegas (junior-sports journalism) said. "We just got here a few hours early."
Vegas said although he is more of an X-Men fan, he grew up watching Batman cartoons, and remembers the Adam West series.
The Dark Knight has generated more buzz than any other summer movie, and much of it comes from the fact that it is Heath Ledger's final completed performance.
The actor was found dead in his Manhattan apartment earlier this year.
