The Avengers weren’t prepared for Thanos and it appears that some online ticket sites weren’t prepared for the Avengers.
Pre-sale tickets for “Avengers: Endgame,” the latest film from Disney’s Marvel Studios which opens on April 26, went on sale Tuesday morning, prompting fans to flock to sites like Fandango and AMC to grab their tickets.
But those who logged onto Fandango found themselves in a virtual queue for some theater chains.
“You’re now in line for tickets,” a graphic on Fandango’s site read.
The graphic, which pops up after consumers try to buy tickets for certain theaters, says that ticket buyers will automatically be taken to the site when their turn comes up. The graphic displays an estimated wait time, which varies from person to person.
Fandango was backed up but was operational, allowing consumers to grab tickets, even though many show times for the film’s opening weekend are already sold out.
“Endgame” set Fandango’s first day pre-sales record overtaking “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” It broke the record in only six hours, the online ticket seller reported on Tuesday evening.
AMC’s website and its ticketing app, however, appeared to be down because of the high demand.
Fandango declined to comment. AMC did not immediately return a request for comment, but they posted a tweet to address the site crash.
“We want everyone to be able to grab their Avengers: Endgame tickets, but it looks like we’ve gotten Thanos’ snap,” the tweet said. “We’re working on getting things back up and running, and in the meantime, please keep trying our website and our partner sites!”
Atom Tickets prepared their servers for the rush of online ticket sales, but it still wasn’t enough to handle the demand. A spokesperson for Atom told CNN Business that “Endgame” has sold three times more tickets on its site in the first hour of pre-sale than “Avengers: Infinity War” did last year.
“Endgame” is the sequel to “Infinity War,” which broke box office records when it premiered last April.
“Infinity War” made a record $640 million for its opening weekend around the world. It went on to make more than $2 billion worldwide.
Theaters released multiple showtimes for “Endgame,” which is listed at 3 hours and 2 minutes. AMC 25 in New York City’s Times Square has 41 showtimes on opening day. That includes showtimes at 3:30 am, 4:30 am and 5:30 am.
