Box Office Runs Out of Free "Social Network" Tickets

If you were hoping to go to the Harvard Box Office to snag a free ticket to "The Social Network," don't count on it.

The free showing, which is part of the College Events Board's "Dinner and a Movie" night this Thursday, was so hotly anticipated that the Box Office ran out of tickets yesterday—the very same day the tickets were released.

"We couldn't even believe how quickly they ran out," said CEB vice-chair Stephen G. Anastos Jr. '11

In its fifth rendition, the "Dinner and a Movie" event combines discounts at many Harvard Square restaurants with a free showing of a movie at the AMC Loews Harvard Square Theater.

In the past, tickets were available up until the day of the showing. Last fall, the CEB released tickets for "Where the Wild Things Are" on Sunday, Oct. 18, but it wasn't until Thursday at 3 p.m. that the CEB was notified that the tickets had run out, James A. McFadden '10, a former vice-chair of the CEB and Crimson editorial editor, said at the time.

Still, the CEB wasn't counting on tickets sitting unclaimed at the box office this time. When asked, Anastos said he expected tickets for "The Social Network," a widely-acclaimed movie about former Harvard student Mark E. Zuckerburg and the founding of Facebook, to last until today. That they were gone so quickly, he said, was unexpected.

"We did not anticipate it running out this quickly," he said.