After only a few weeks at the box office, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is on track to becoming the most successful film of all time with sales of $700 million and counting. That’s enough money to buy the First Order a few new Star Destroyer consoles (after Kylo Ren destroyed them during another one of his light saber tantrums). But did you know a little bit of that $700 million could have gone back to you? If you had bought your tickets online through Fandango and coupled them with an Ebates cash back deal, then a chunk of the ticket cost would have gone right back into your pocket. Even if you were looking forward to camping outside your local theater in a Tauntaun sleeping bag, savings like that should give you the incentive to skip the line when Episode VIII comes out.
All this goes way, way back to Oct. 20, 2015 (when we all still thought Jakku was Tatooine). That was Fandango’s biggest sales day in its entire 15-year history. As you may have already guessed, that was also the day “The Force Awakens” tickets went on sale. Theaters across the country sold out their first few Thursday night preview screenings within a matter of minutes. The traffic was so heavy that some users couldn’t even access the site for hours. But October wasn’t merely a Death Star-sized victory for Fandango; Ebates also saw a huge jump in number of visitors. Visits to the Ebates Fandango page increased five times that day and steadily rose over the next two months, up until the Dec. 18 release of “The Force Awakens.”
All of that led up to the whopping $700 million the movie has already raked in. Analysts project that 30% of ticket sales from an all-ages movie like “The Force Awakens” come from online ticket sales. That means $150 million worth of Star Wars ticket sales came from sites like Fandango. If everyone who had bought their ticket that way had also gone to Ebates to get their cash back, it would have totaled nearly $4.5 million in savings. That’s a huge cumulative number, but even at the individual level, it’s a pretty big deal. With the cost of a premium 3D screening costing you $20 a ticket, a family of four going to see “The Force Awakens” could get a significant chunk of change back just by taking a few extra minutes to jump over to Ebates.com.
Luckily, Star Wars won’t be leaving our movie theater screens anytime soon. With episodes VII and VIII on the way, as well as a ton of awesome spin-off films (We can’t wait for the young Han Solo movie!), you’ll be able to head off to that galaxy far, far away for a long time to come. Which means you’ll also have plenty more chances to save some money thanks to Fandango and Ebates. Or why even wait that long? “The Force Awakens” definitely demands more than one viewing!
