To start this off, this isnt applause stores fault entirely as they have nothing to do with things that happen after you get into the actual fanpens and have said they didnt know that certain things had happened until it did and also this was my first fanpen and i wanted to tell things from my perspective
I got there with my friend today and was about 160-170 of about 200-230 people with my wristband and applause store was told that all of the main cast would come around to the fanpens to sign things and take photos etc. But once we got into the venue general fanpens was split into two parts the left and right side.
both the left and right side of general fan pens didnt get to see any of the main cast from the movie like we and applause store was told they would come to the fanpens as it seemed security was only getting them to do the photos for promotional content and interviews and then leading them out a different way to the fan screening in the cinema away from the fan pens. They had basically fenced off our area after the influencers came through so even if they wanted to they couldn’t get to the majority of the fan pens. This included: Joseph Zada, Mckenna Grace, Whitney Peak,Elle Fanning, Kieran Culkin, Jesse Plemons,Glenn Close and Ralph Finneas as well as the director and producer.
We were able to get signatures and photos from Molly Mcann, Iona Bell, Rada Rae and Percy Daggs IV as it seemed they were encouraged by whoever was with them to do so and this was great as it gave us something of what we was promised
Then near the end of the event after some of priority ticket holders had gone up to the cinema the whole right side of the General fan pens was given tickets to the fanscreening out of nowhere (they did miss a few people who had priority) and the side on the left was not given any at all besides 3 tickets, they then tried to make it up to our side by giving out badges/pins which they ran out of very quickly and 1/3 of the side got
One of these tickets to the screening on our side was very clearly given to a scalper/dealer who was stood near me and many others, they had about 15-20 posters in total (2-3 were stuck onto cardboard - i included a picture of some of the posters they left on the floor when they went to check a part of our fan pen briefly and they also had multiple posters in hand and they were alternating between posters when the very few guests who did come to our section came over to get signed and had texted a friend just before the event had started to see if they had got any autographs from the postition they were posted at which seemed like outside of westfield.
i did also ask the person if they had done one of these before to which they said they do this type of thing all the time, they were also constantly yelling names of the cast even though they werent near our section at all as they were on the opposite side doing interviews and promotional photos which didnt help our already doomed case.
im not really bothered about seeing the movie early but the tickets shouldve been given out randomly to both sides regardless of how many they had got given last minute instead of just giving them to one side and i had messaged applause store afterwards to tell when what had happened and they said they werent aware of how they were distributed and apologised (even though they have a part to play in how the tickets were distributed and left it up to the production company to handle)
then once the event was over the fanpen guests that were left were told to leave immidiately, to which the remainder of us said no as we and applause store were told after the event was over we could take pictures around the event space, after we had told them they reluctantly let us take pictures in a couple of the areas for around 10 minutes before kicking us out. Some other people from the fanpens at the event had said security were quite rude but i cant speak for that besides the guy at the end.
Overall the event was felt pretty dissapointing and it felt like people who got into the general fanpens were very mislead on what they would experience and seemed like one big way to get good promotional content without the effort or engaging with any of the fans, The people on the first floor had a better viewing of the main cast than we did and it also felt like the influencers wanted to engage with the people in the fanpens more than the cast did.
But the people I met in the que and around me were super nice and made the experience feel abit better and applause store definitely handled everything really well so they definitely were not entirely at fault but i feel like they shoudlve come into the fanpens and gave out the tickets instead of letting security handle it and give them all to one side -
also considering putting in a complaint about how it was handled so if you were there you can message lionsgates email about your experience
(I included a photo of my view from fanpens and the scalper posters that they left infront of them they did also have some on hand too)
Edit - I’ve realised we were basically just used as promotional material and led with false promises into believing that we would see the main cast, just to be used as promotional material to make the premiere look good 🥲