While The Dark Knight opens next Friday, because standared pre-opening Thursday midnight shows are, not surprisingly, selling out, theaters across the country are adding 3am and 6am showtimes.

You can check out Fandango’s full press release about it below; tickets are available for pre-sale for tickets in standard theaters and in IMAX.

You might wondering who would go to 3am and 6am weekday showings of a movie? Well, you can count me in. Honestly, I think 6am showings are pretty nice (except for the whole waking up early part).

When Spider-Man 3 was released, there was pre-order madness much like this current one for The Dark Knight (though, reports are that TDK is surpassing SM3). I dreaded the idea of having to go see it after work on a Friday night with hordes of people, so to beat the crowds on opening day, I got on the NYC subway at 4:20am to go from Brooklyn to Manhattan to the theater near my job and caught the 6am show. When it was over, I just walked over to work and began my day.

Not a bad plan, considering there was no waiting in long lines and the theater wasn’t so packed that I couldn’t get a good seat, but not empty either. I just might decide to do it again next Friday for The Dark Knight. We’ll see.

‘The Dark Knight’ Sells Out Fastest
Just Before the Dawn on Fandango

The Next ‘Batman’ Movie Will Pack Theaters
Through the Night of July 17

LOS ANGELES, July 9 — With more than a week to go before the highly-anticipated release of “The Dark Knight,” Fandango, the nation’s leading moviegoer destination, reports that many of its pre-opening Thursday midnight shows on July 17 are already sold out in cities across the country, from New York to Boise, Idaho. Theaters continue to add 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. showtimes to meet the ticketing demand.

“‘The Dark Knight’ may be responsible for a lot of bleary eyes at work next Friday morning,” says Rick Butler, Chief Operating Officer for Fandango. “We’re seeing a record number of late-night showtimes selling out in advance, while theaters are adding new performances every day.”

More than 1,500 late-night showtimes of the movie have been scheduled for the film’s pre-opening on Thursday night (Friday morning), July 17-18, at http://www.fandango.com/thedarkknight. An online survey of more than 3,000 “The Dark Knight” fans on Fandango.com last week resulted in the following information on the late-night surge:

— 37% of respondents plan to see the film at least once during one of the late night performances on Thursday night.
— 38% say that they intend to take off a few hours or the entire day from work on Friday as a result of seeing the movie the night before.
— 60% of these moviegoers are male.
— 71% are under the age of 35.
— 39% plan to see the film in IMAX(R).
— 92% expect that the Academy will recognize Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker with a posthumous Oscar(R) nomination next year.

For Fandango, “The Dark Knight” is poised to be the year’s top advance ticket-seller in wide release, outpacing “Iron Man,” “Indiana Jones 4” and “Sex and the City” at the same point in those films’ sales cycles.