Why are those people camping in line?

"Movie studios and their marketing machines are increasingly geared to getting their biggest box office opening weekend because the competition is so tough, they might not make it to the next weekend," says Paul Dergarabedian, movie analyst for Exhibitor Relations, an industry box office analysis firm.

As a result, more and more films which do great at the box office in a three- or four-day opening, are falling off drastically in subsequent weekends. That happens because they're often socked by poor word-of-mouth reviews or by the heavy promotion of the next weekend's big release.

But beyond the savvy advertising that often helps propel the hype of a movie event, many industry observers are noting a phenomenon weirder than the assortment of aliens on display in a Star Wars cantina. In some small sense, Americans simply want to be there because they want to be there.

"This is America around the campfire, gathering as the tribe we've ceased to be, defining ourselves as a culture by standing in line the way we used to sit around the dinner table but no longer do," says Kathy Giuffre, who teaches the sociology of culture at Colorado College. "Maybe it's tragic, but increasingly blockbuster movie lines are where this is happening."

That analysis seems to jibe with interviews in long lines outside the Grauman Theater here.

"It's the actual experience of being here, rubbing shoulders with other fans who love these films as much as I do and want to talk about them," says Markus Watson, from Glendora, Calif.

Why not take it easy and see these movies on the second day or third day?

"The second day brings in the second- rate fans. I want to hang out with the winners," says Watson.

Likewise for Steven Mason, a 16-year-old student from Burbank.

"It's being here with the crowds that draws me – the environment," he says. "I wanna have the memory of being with all the hard-core fans and of just being here."

Hand in glove with these observations comes another. It is related both to the increased isolation of home cable, satellite, and pay-per-view viewing and to the sheer overbuilding of cineplexes in recent years. That is the search for a shared social experience in a world where traditional notions of tribe and community are breaking down.

In Newton, Mass., Xavier Reagan, admits he's lining up because of the hype surrounding the event.

"It's not even about the movie at his point," he says. "It's everything about the movie, just the whole excitement of it all."

For some, the anticipation of seeing the new film has been building ever since the last "Star Wars" movie, "The Phantom Menace" ended its first screening, about 2:30 a.m., May 19, 1999.

Shehzad Sheikh, dressed up as a Jedi Knight and wielding a plastic light saber in the lobby here, has seen every one of the movies 200 times. During his childhood, his Han Solo doll slept with him on his pillow at night. "That guy was my Barbie doll," he says. "I'm obsessed with ["Star Wars"]. How can you not be?"

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