Moviegoers object to '666' on tickets for 'Passion'

AP ^ | 3-1-04

[truthandlife]

Tickets at one movie theater screening Mel Gibson's ``The Passion of the Christ'' are being deemed decidedly unholy. The number 666, which many Christians recognize as the ``mark of the beast,'' is appearing on movie tickets for Gibson's film at a Georgia theater, drawing complaints from some moviegoers. The machine that prints tickets assigned the number 666 as a prefix on all the tickets for the film, said Gary Smith, owner of the Movies at Berry Square in northwest Georgia. The 666 begins a series of numbers that are listed below the name of the movie, the date, time and price. ``It's from our computer and it's absolutely a coincidence,'' Smith said. ``It has nothing to do with the film company or any vendor. It's completely in our computer.''

[MineralMan]

Silliness!

[ClintonBeGone]

Talk about paranoid!

[truthandlife]

Silliness!

Agreed but I thought it was interesting that AP would even write a story on this.

[Jaded]

Probably. I got tickets for 2 different theaters. One has 20 screens, the other 30. Got the tickets 8 days apart. The screen for both.... 7.

[gobucks]

A coincidence? As someone who knows a LOT about computers, thus is not likely. I would be interested as to which corporate group owns the 'Movies at Berry Square'. I wonder who works there, especially the folks in the IT support group.

That would be interesting to know ...

[Sam Cree]

Maybe silly, but so many take this number seriesly that it's hard to not wonder what's going on in Atlanta.

[spodefly]

I also heard that if you fold the ticket in half, then fold the halves again, then fold in the top corners, it creates an image that looks like a tiny airplane.

[TankerKC]

As someone who knows a LOT about computers, thus is not likely.

How so?

[Thinkin' Gal]

Say... You didn't excerpt the critical first word!

ROME, Ga. -- Tickets at one movie theater screening Mel Gibson's ``The Passion of the Christ'' are being deemed decidedly unholy. The number 666...<<<

Heh...

[Sloth]

A coincidence? As someone who knows a LOT about computers, thus is not likely.

On what basis do you say this? If the numbers are generated pretty randomly, or even sequentially, the chances of that particular combination coming up in a 3-digit number is 1 in a thousand (and there are a couple thousand theaters playing the movie). But it sounds like this is merely the first 3 digits in a *longer* number, and each additional digit increases the likelihood of 666 showing up somewhere in the sequence.

[leadpenny]

If someone did tinker with a computer to cause it to happen, they probably also told someone else they did it. It, too, will get in the news.

Beyond that, what if someone did cause it to happen? So what?

[Fundamentally Fair]

..is not likely.

Would it be any less likely for the three digit prefix on the tickets to be 357?

[gobucks]

Because 666 is a number that is very well known among leftists as being one that throws worry into biblically oriented christians.

It would be par for the course that a bored IT leftist in a leftist owned chain of theaters would pull this stunt on a movie this blatantly christian. And it would be small potatoes relatively given all the anti christian material being emitted from all leftist organizations.

It's intersection of the number and the theme of this movie that makes this so unlikely.

[gobucks]

LOL!! Now that is funny!

[gobucks]

I'm not saying its impossible that it was chance. I'm just saying that, given the overwhelming flood of evidence of proactive attempts by anyone of leftist orientation to slam anything Christian, it's likely this is someone's idea of how to mute the impact of the Christ's message.

The more I think of it, the more obvious it appears.

[The_Media_never_lie]

If they would only charge me $6.66 to see the movie I would consider it a bargain!

[Agnes Heep]

You have to wonder how anyone paranoid enough to cringe at "666" on a ticket stub would react to the notion that the Jews killed Christ.

[Sam Cree]

Beyond that, what if someone did cause it to happen?

Well, I'd suppose it would have been a deliberate attempt to offend fundamentalist types, that's all. Not good business practice, and not nice.

However, someone noted that the 666 is likely to have been just the first 3 numbers in a series.

[gobucks]

LOL! Even my matinee price here was 8 dollars!