‘Dark Knight Rises’ Prologue Tickets Go on Sale on eBay for IMAX Premiere

Last week, tickets for the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises prologue popped up on sale for the IMAX screening and promptly sold out six months before the film hits the box office. Now, those tickets have made their way to the secondary market for steep prices on eBay and Craig's List.

Tickets for the 12:01 July 20th showing of The Dark Knight Rises in IMAX in Los Angeles' Studio City at the IMAX Citywalk AMC are currently on sale on eBay with a starting bid of $200 and a Buy It Now price of $250. Tickets also were spotted for sale on New York City's Craig's List for $97 to $100.

But where exactly did these tickets come from?

According to the seller, eBay user topshelfseller, the tickets originated from tickets sold at a screening for Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol, where a six-minute teaser clip was viewed, and subsequently leaked on the Internet. AMC reportedly distributed the batch of tickets to interested buyers.

These tickets were sold to the group of people who watched the exclusive prologue on December 13th, the user wrote. When these tickets were purchased about 65% of the seats were already sold so the midnight show will certainly be sold out very soon.

The tickets were initially priced at $17.50 each for the IMAX premiere, but since have shot up more than 1,000 percent above their original selling price.

Also, unbeknownst to many, tickets for the midnight screening in IMAX quietly went on sale on Fandango for a handful of theatres and venues in major cities like San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles after the successful rate of selling and demand at the Mission Impossible screening.

However, most locations sold out of the advanced tickets before word spread. According to Fandango, The Dark Knight Rises: The IMAX Experience has sold out at New York City's AMC Loews Lincoln Square theater and the AMC Loews Universal City cineplex in Los Angeles.

So far, there has been no buzz around non-IMAX advanced tickets on presale for The Dark Knight Rises, but surely, we'll hear word soon.

The much hyped The Dark Knight Rises prologue is set to be released on July 20th, as one of the most highly-anticipated films for 2012's summer box office season. The final installment for Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy is directed by Christopher Nolan and features Tom Hardy as Bane, along with Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard. The film takes place eight years after the Harvey Dent case in The Dark Knight when Bane shows up in Gotham City.