You’d think with all the fanboys out there and all the Avatar hype that the free tickets to Friday evening’s “Avatar Day” preview would be totally gone coast-to-coast after this afternoon’s online giveaway. Actually not so far (i.e., as of 10 pm eastern). I thought this would be like the sale of Bruce Springsteen concert tickets, but nope. Avatar looks seriously hot in the big cities but elsewhere….well, not quite a stampede.

All the big-city theatres are online-requested out and some of the IMAX theatres have filled up in various territories, but there are scores of regular and IMAX theatres in the hinterlands that still have tickets left. Florida is wide open except for Orlando and Tampa. Kansas City and Las Vegas still have seats. Philadelphia-area New Jersey theatres have room. Columbus, Ohio, is sold out but theatres in Charlotte and Concord, North Carolina still have seats. All the New York theatres outside of Manhattan are still open for business. Four Houston IMAX theatres still have seats but two San Antonio IMAX theatres are all filled up. Twelve theatres in Washington state (Seattle and outlying areas) have seats open.

Does this mean that (a) people in outlying realms are always slow to pick up on viral happenings?, or (b) that some people are figuring what’s the hubba-hubba about a 16-minute reel?, or (c) that Avatar has a ways to go with the middle-American geek-Eloi? Maybe a bit of all three. But if I was a Fox marketing guy I’d be wondering why tickets to a free peek at the year’s biggest event pic weren’t Gone in Sixty Minutes.