When the doors opened to the movie-theater lobby at 11:22 p.m. Thursday at Riverside Plaza, Cal State San Bernardino student Misty Vu, 19, ran in with a look of victory.

Nearly 13 hours since she arrived at the front of the line outside Regal Stadium 16 for a seat in one of several sold-out auditoriums inside, she would likely get her wish - a prime perch in the last row of seats to watch "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" with 17 of her closest Twilight friends. She had been saving their places in line since 10:30 a.m.

And like other boyfriends, brothers and fathers scattered among the crowd of teen girls and women that night, Kevin Verdeja, 19, was there to keep a Twilight fan company, in his case Vu, and was as unenthusiastic about the movie to come as she was excited.

Lines of fans snaked from the Regal entrance more than two hours before the start of the teen monster romance - one worked its way to the corner of Chipotle, the other led past Citrus City Grille in Riverside. Inside the lobby more lines, roped-off switchbacks, contained more fans who had sat for several hours after school or after work. Some had backpacks filled with school assignments due the next morning, others kept energy drinks in their pockets and wore their preferred monsters - vampire Edward or werewolf Jacob -- on their shirts.

What's a teen fan to do for seven hours before The Twilight Saga began at midnight?

Talk about school. Talk about boys at school. Talk about other boys. Talk about the movie. Then start over, said Carly Holm, 17, who said it was a "vicious cycle".

Holm, with her friends Sharla Chang and Catherine Kelly from the Loma Linda Academy, stood in line since 3 p.m.

Holm's T-shirt no longer "hearts" NY. On Thursday, it professed her love for Edward Cullen, the lead vampire.

Her dad, not so much a fan of the movie, had agreed to see it anyway in order to give Holm and her friends a ride home, she said.

"He's being a good dad," Holm said.

Riverside-resident Tammy Simmons, 50, didn't want her daughter Taylor to miss classes at Riverside Community College so she volunteered to stand in line for her.

The movie appeared to please those in attendance who had, in some cases, camped out for hours to witness it.

"I would have sat there all day," to see the show, said Sarah Courchene, 19, who donned a Twilight shirt and stood in the lobby after the movie, wrapped in a blanket with Edward's face on it.

Her 16-year-old brother Ryan, though, had fallen asleep.

For Andrew Estabrook, a Regal employee who swept up popcorn from the lobby after the first round of midnight shows ended, it was just another night at the movies - a night that started at 6:30 pm and ended at 2:30 am.

Reach Kimberly Pierceall at 951-368-9552 or kpierceall@PE.com