While I originally saw Men in Black II last Thursday (6/27) at a special screening, I decided to catch another show on opening night, mostly to experience opening night at the famous Chinese theater in Hollywood for the first time ever (had been there once before for Lord of the Rings, but not on opening night).

The theater holds somewhere around a thousand people and the line of roughly a hundred folks was let in at 7:10 for the 7:45, eventually filling up to sell-out status as the lights dimmed to some cheering and applauding. Thankfully there were no annoying ass commercial ads like I'm used to in the more local theaters (there was instead an actual decent Mountain Dew one that I found somewhat amusing compared to what I've seen in the past), but below were the trailers showed and reactions from the audience.

First up was Stuart Little 2, which was the wrong movie to show for the crowd present, more so due to the drastically different age comparison. No negative feedback or anything, just no real evident response from the audience.

In no particular order after that, we had the full length Signs trailer which you could just tell had the interest of every soul in the room. My heart started to race as the preview kicked off, as I had been highly awaiting to see this version of the trailer with a packed audience (to see crowd responses) and the Chinese was all the better for it. This happened to be my first time of seeing that specific trailer with an audience and it got a very encouraging response (without cheering or clapping). I had a friend who attended the 5:00 show at the theater respond to the trailer (having not seen the preview before) by simply saying, "looks awesome".

Then that unique little trailer starts with the Warner Brothers logo transitioning to some weird graphical designs...little did I know we'd be having the T3 teaser attached! Usually I'll have a good idea what I'm in store for (preview wise) at these big movies but this caught me right out of the blue, which added to the fun and excitement. As soon as the Terminator theme music loaded (even when the WB logo changed), the place went wild, with cheering and applauding galore; a response that reminded me very much of The Matrix Reloaded scrolling reaction opening night (and 2nd night) at Attack of the Clones (all it took was one simple thing to spark everyone).

Star Trek: Nemesis played to a fairly humble reception until the title hit the screen, resulting in mostly applauding but not to the extent of T3.

Concluding the trailers was the Owen Wilson and Eddie Murphy action/comedy, I Spy. Now, I don't know if I'm alone on this one but when the trailer began I immediately thought it was Shanghai Knights (which had me excited, especially with that crowd), only to see Murphy's face very soon after. The trailer got a good response from the audience but nothing greatly energetic.

On a unique note, not sure if this occurred elsewhere but we were shown a short animated feature that was received extremely well by the crowd (got a very nice applause afterwards). I happened to like it, but the audience reaction was overwhelming. Can't remember the title though.

When MIB2 let out, there was a line for the 10:30 that was about the same length as was for the 7:45, hinting at likely similar if not dead-on attendance (sold out) as before.

Whether you care or not for these reports, I'd like to know, so drop me an email with comments if you would like (more designed for the HSX crowd and any hardcore box office fans).

Until next time...