After 608 days, the wait is finally over.

Today the highly anticipated Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire will come to theaters across the country for late night premieres.

Here in Fort Collins both the Carmike 10 and and Cinemark 16 will be debuting the second film of Suzanne Collins’ best-selling series at 8 p.m.

“A lot of work goes into planning it,” said Molly Vanry, a manager at Carmike. “We have showings for the public, but also a lot of groups who rent out whole theaters. So timing the shows is a challenge because we want to make sure everybody who wants to see it can see it when they want.”

Many groups at CSU participate in midnight premieres by buying out entire theaters.

The Residence Hall Association bought out a theater at the Cinemark exclusively for CSU students.

This is something RHA has done for many midnight premieres in the past, including Thor: The Dark World on November 7th.

“These are opportunities for students to have fun without worrying about school,” said Asiala Melgoza, the Director of Programming for RHA. “And everybody loves movies.”

In order to do this, RHA must buy every single ticket for a whole theatre at the regular student prices. They then sell those tickets to students for a fraction of the cost. A student ticket bought directly from the Cinemark is $9, but RHA sells them to students for $4.

“It’s not exactly a money maker for us,” Melgoza said. “But it’s great for the students because sometimes they can’t really afford a regular ticket.”

Chi Omega also bought out a theater at Carmike to give their sorority sisters the opportunity to view the movie together in a night of sisterhood bonding.

“I think it’s really nice to have this chance to take a break and spend some time with your sisters and your really good friends and have some quality time together,” said freshman business major and Chi Omega member Alexis Svenson.

With the Cinemark already selling out four of their 12 showings, both theaters know that they need to prepare for the stampede of Hunger Games fans that will no doubt rush to the theater tonight.

“Every person on staff knows that they have to work these big premieres,” Vanry said. “We have a list of procedures that we go through for lines and a list of where all of the special shows will be so that everyone on staff can be aware of what’s going on.”

The Carmike even has a scale model of their building to help plan how they’re going to control lines.

As someone who has worked at a movie theater for 7 years and is a veteran of a handful of Harry Potter premieres, Vanry knows exactly what goes into these events. She also loves them.

“I look forward to them because it’s so stressful and so busy, but you actually get a lot of employee bonding and everyone is doing something,” she said. “And some people dress up, so it’s also great for people watching.”

Catching Fire is gearing up to be one of the biggest events of the semester, as CSU students are gearing up to return to the world of Panem and see Jennifer Lawrence reprise her role as Katniss Everdeen.

And amid all of the sold out showings, to those of you who have yet to buy tickets: “May the odds be ever in your favor.”

Collegian Campus Beat Reporter McKenna Ferguson can be reached at news@collegian.com.