-By Bay City News Service
The final film installment of "Twilight," based on the best-selling vampire books, opened in theaters late Thursday and many Bay Area fans, known as "Twihards," snatched up tickets for the series' end.
"The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 2," based on the books by Stephanie Meyer, is opening with late-night showings Thursday to much excitement from fans, many aligned with "Team Jacob" or "Team Edward," the two male leads played by actors Taylor Lautner and Robert Pattinson.
The books and movie adaptations about vampires, werewolves and misfit teenager Bella, played by Kristen Stewart, who becomes part of the fantasy world, have garnered widespread popularity. Many Bay Area theaters are selling tickets for tonight's screenings at a rapid pace or are already sold out.
At the UA Berkeley 7 theater at 2274 Shattuck Ave. in Berkeley a theater employee said people stopped by by most of the day buying tickets almost every five minutes for tickets for one of the two 10 p.m. screenings.
By 4 p.m. one of the screenings was already sold out.
He said he anticipated the theater would be packed with moviegoers as soon as 8 p.m.
In Marin County, the Fairfax 6 Theater is had a 10 p.m. showing of the film on two screens. As of 4 p.m. the theater had already sold 200 of about 600 tickets.
An employee at the theater said they would run the movie on more screens if there was demand.
At Century 20 Daly City at 1901 Junipero Serra Blvd., a theater employee said no one was in line late Thursday afternoon, but staff were anticipating lines to start before the 10 p.m. showings.
Many other theaters throughout the Bay Area are screening the Twilight movie starting at 10 p.m., with many venues offering multiple screenings up through midnight.
