New Star Wars ticket sales 'go through roof' at Shropshire cinemas

Netty Smith, general manager at Odeon in the town, said hundreds of tickets were snapped up for Star Wars: The Force Awakens after sales opened yesterday.

She said the cinema was also this week bracing itself for its biggest attendances of the year when new James Bond movie Spectre opens.

She said: "Our sales are going through the roof at the minute for Star Wars. We sold hundreds of tickets on the first day.

"We are also expecting our biggest attendance of the year this week with the new James Bond film, even more than 50 Shades of Grey, hopefully.

"We had around 11,000 that week (in February this year) and we are hoping to at least match that if not better it. We have a new VIP area with electric reclining chairs and they have all completely sold out for Spectre."

The Odeon boss said she was not aware of problems yesterday which saw people around the country reportedly struggling to get tickets for Star War as websites crashed under the demand.

Both the Odeon and Cineworld websites crashed under the strain.

Fans took to Twitter to air their frustrations after they were left facing lengthy delays when tickets went on sale at 8am yesterday.

A spokeswoman for Cineworld, also in Telford, added: "We're aware that some customers have been unable to book tickets for Star Wars: The Force Awakens at a small number of Cineworld cinemas."

Meanwhile, cinemas in the county will be going Back to the Future tomorrow to mark October 21, 2015 – the date Marty McFly and "Doc" Emmett Brown travel to in the second film of the trilogy.

The Cineworld cinemas in Southwater Square, Telford, and Old Potts Way, Shrewsbury, will be screening all three films back-to-back from 6pm. Total running time will be a mammoth 5 hours 42 minutes, and tickets are £15.60 each.

For those looking for a slightly shorter experience, the Odeon at Forge Gate in Telford will be showing the first two films in the trilogy at 6.30pm.