This is just the way Jonas Brothers fans roll: en masse.
Advance-ticket sellers were reporting strong group sales, as well as hundreds of sold-out screenings for the band's new concert movie, Jonas Brothers: The 3D Experience, opening Friday.
"Save those ticket stubs," Exhibitor Relations' Jeff Bock said in an email. "This is a tween event."
MovieTickets.com said 32 percent of its Jonas Brothers: The 3D Experience ticket buyers were purchasing four or more tickets at a time; 15 percent were snagging five or more. Fandango, another online ticketer, said 32 percent of its polled Jonas Brothers customers reported plans to see the movie "with a group of friends." (E! Online and Fandango are both owned by Comcast.)
All those ticket buys are adding up. As of midweek, MovieTickets.com reported 700 sold-out screenings, with Fandango citing "dozens" on its end.
All those 3-D and IMAX tickets, costing about $15-$18 a pop, more than twice the average price for a regular 2-D theater, are adding up, too. At this point, box-office trackers will only be surprised if Jonas Brothers: The 3D Experience doesn't debut at No. 1 like its tween forerunner, Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour.
"I think the benchmark for the Jonas Brothers movie is the $30 million that Miley Cyrus opened with last year," Bruce Nash of the box-office site The Numbers said in an email. "The Jonas Brothers have the advantage of almost twice the number of theaters, but Disney isn't trying the one-week-only marketing ploy [as it did with Hannah Montana]."
Disney, however, is trying another marketing ploy: the so-called "Surprise Theater Invasion Tour," in which the real-live Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas will be dispatched over the weekend to select theaters showing their movie.
With so much momentum going for them, the brothers may have only one thing going against them—well, besides film critics: expectations.
"I think expectations are a bit higher for this film, since it is no longer an unknown commodity for Disney," Bock said.
Even though anything greater than a $15 million gross will ensure the movie's a financial winner for Disney, Nash said, anything under $22 million will be considered a disappointment.
Good thing for the Jonases they appear to have strength in numbers.