When “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2” opens Thursday night in Port Townsend and Port Angeles theaters, it will mark the final chapter in the Twilight saga’s seven-year book and motion-picture run that drew more than 200,000 visitors to the North Olympic Peninsula’s West End.
In Port Angeles, the epic vampire love story will flicker onto the screen at 10 p.m. at Deer Park Cinemas, 96 Deer Park Road, and at Lincoln Theater, 132 E. First St.
Tickets are $10 for adults, $7 for children ages 12 and younger, and $7.50 for seniors.
In Port Townsend, doors open at 10:30 p.m., and the film premiere will begin at 11 p.m. at the Uptown Theatre, 1120 Lawrence St.
All premiere tickets are $8 and are available at the box office.
They are available at each theater’s box office or on the Sun Basin Theater’s website at http://ncwmovies.usonline.com.
The city of Forks, ground zero for the Twilight phenomenon, has no special events planned for the weekend but is expecting an influx of visitors following the Port Angeles late-night premiere screening, said Marcia Bingham, director of the Forks Area Chamber of Commerce.
Many hotels are booked for the weekend, but there are still rooms to be had, Bingham said.
“We’re here to welcome visitors,” she said.
Showings will continue at Peninsula theaters through the weekend.
At the Uptown Theatre, weekend showings will be at 5 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Friday and at 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Tickets are $8 for adults, $7 for teens ages 13-17 and seniors, and $6 for children 12 or younger.
At Deer Park Cinema, weekend showings will be at 4:45 p.m.,
7:15 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. Friday; at
2:15 p.m., 4:45 p.m., 7:15 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. Saturday; and at 2:15 p.m., 4:45 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. Saturday.
At Lincoln Theater, weekend showings will be at 4:30 p.m., 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Friday; at 2 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Saturday; and at 2 p.m., 4:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday.
Tickets for matinee showings before 6 p.m. are on sale for $7.50.
The film is expected to remain at Lincoln Theater for three or four weeks, said Richard Braun, manager of the Lincoln Theater.
The Port Angeles theater, where characters in the book see a movie, is less than a block from Bella Italia, 118 E. First St., the restaurant where protagonist Bella Swan and vampire Edward Cullen have their first date.
“The Twilight Saga” movies are based on four novels written by Stephenie Meyer: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn.
The stories — set in Forks with visits to LaPush, Port Angeles and other locations — tell the tale of a vampire-human-werewolf love triangle.
In it, Swan, estranged daughter of the Forks police chief, meets and falls in love with Cullen, a 100-year-old vampire, and also with Jacob Black, a Quileute werewolf.
Twilight and New Moon tell the story of Swan’s choice — the coolly elegant vampire or the hot, perennially shirtless werewolf — and the world of vampires, both good and evil.
In the first half of Breaking Dawn, Swan and Cullen marry, and Swan nearly dies during the birth of Renesmee, their half-human, half-vampire daughter.
Swan was saved by being changed into a vampire — and Black “imprinted” on her magically fast-maturing child, marking him as her protector and soulmate.
“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2” opens as Bella is learning to be a vampire, and the Volturi — the vampire ruling council — has been told by a rival vampire that Renesmee is a fully vampire “immortal child” whose birth is a criminal act punishable by death for both the parents and the child.
Meyer published Twilight in 2005 and selected the city for its near-constant cloud cover — the perfect place for a vampire to avoid direct sunlight — and researched its business and history.
Real locations such as Forks High School in Forks, First Beach in LaPush and Bella Italia in Port Angeles filled out the pages of the story.
“She got it perfect,” Bingham said.
The author did not visit the city until after Twilight was published, when she rented for a short stay a house just a block from Bingham’s home, but when visitors arrive, they note that the area is just as Meyer wrote it, Bingham said.
“It was all well and good and great and big,” Bingham said of the business boom that peaked in 2010, when more than 70,000 visitors descended on the town of 3,545.
In 2011, registered visitors at the Forks Visitor Center topped 45,000 — still far more than pre-Twilight visitor totals that were counted in the hundreds.
“We were the ugly duckling,” Bingham said.
The books put the city on the map, and the unexpected windfall saved many businesses, she said.
But Bingham said she thought the books probably will continue to bring more visitors — and their money — to Forks for years to come.
“I see no reason it won’t continue,” Bingham said, noting that in addition to new fans, Twilight brings visitors back again and again, drawn not by the books or movies, but by Forks’ beautiful surroundings and friendly residents.
And even without new books or movies, Forks will still be there, waiting for them, she said.
Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
