A Post reporter attempted to buy tickets online from major chains such as Broadway Circuit, Golden Harvest and Emperor Cinemas on Thursday morning, but could not access any of the websites.

Cinemas brace for full houses drawn by ‘Happy Hong Kong’ cut-price ticket deal

Emperor Cinemas’ website came back online at around 11.45am and notified the reporter there were 18,000 users ahead of them and that a waiting time of 3,709 minutes was expected.

Other sites, including one for Cine-Art House, were accessible, but failed to process purchases or suffered from long loading times.

Online ticketing services at Golden Scene and Lumen Cinema were operating normally on Thursday morning.

A check by the Post at around 11.30am found the website for MCL Cinema had gone offline. An employee at the company’s Kornhill Plaza venue told customers queuing there that the page’s servers had shut down at 10.45am.

Cheryl Wong, a homemaker, who queued at the Quarry Bay cinema in the morning, said she had hoped to buy tickets in person to avoid the HK$10 online booking fee.

“I haven’t decided what to see yet, but I’m interested in watching Marry My Dead Body with my husband,” she said, referring to a newly released Taiwanese supernatural comedy.

Terry Lee, a 16-year-old taking a break from exams, said he planned to buy a ticket for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, but had struggled to get one online.

Some of those lining up at the cinema in Tseung Kwan O’s Popcorn mall were unable to get tickets after the venue’s self-service machines went offline.

The government on Monday said people could each buy up to four tickets at most venues, with the cap for online purchasing varying depending on the cinema chain’s platform.

Sixty-one commercial cinemas have signed up for the campaign to revive Hong Kong’s pandemic-struck economy and get people smiling again.

Popular films released during the Lunar New Year break and in 2022 were also expected to hit the big screen on Saturday to give customers more choice, one cinema chain said.

Among titles to be screened on Saturday are classic Hong Kong comedies All’s Well, Ends Well from 1992 and the following year’s All’s Well, Ends Well Too. The 2002 psychological horror film Inner Senses, starring Hong Kong legend Leslie Cheung and Karena Lam, will also get an airing.

Two men, who only gave their surnames as Siu and Cheung, came by to see if they could get Saturday tickets at around 1pm at Emperor Cinema’s premium Entertainment Building venue in Central.

But they gave up after staff informed them only a few early morning or late night seats were left.

“It would be nice if we were given this offer over several more weekends,” said Cheung.

Melody Su, a 26-year-old office worker from nearby, said she wanted to check what was still available while she was on her lunch break, but did not have a particular movie in mind.

“It would be nice to get something for my boyfriend and I, but it doesn’t matter if I don’t,” she said.

Cinema-goers can enjoy new titles, re-runs with ‘Happy Hong Kong’ ticket discount

Staff at the Entertainment Building told customers still trickling over the lunch hour that tickets were already “90 per cent sold out.”

Tickets for Saturday screenings could be found in second-hand trading platform Carousell on Thursday. Some were sold at the original price of HK$30 each and sellers said they had posted the tickets as they had bought extra.

The Post posed as a buyer and approached a seller who had two tickets at HK$70. The seller, who declined to accept a lower price, said they had queued for more than an hour.

“I was in the queue for a long time,” they said. “I skipped my meals for the queue.”

The Hong Kong Theatres Association on Thursday apologised to people who faced problems as they tried to secure tickets online.

The association said the cinema companies had “tried their best” to prepare for the anticipated flood of customers and had strengthened their servers and carried out tests in the run-up to the promotion.

“The association thanks the public for their support of Hong Kong Cinema Day … people responded enthusiastically and the industry is greatly encouraged,” it said.