Christopher Mintz-Plasse arrives at the Kick-Ass premiere

While everyone agreed that Friday’s schedule looked amazing on paper alone, the general buzz today makes it very clear that the entire evening exceeded expectations on many fronts.

The Kick-Ass premiere was a strong choice to open the festival that appeared to an interesting cross-section of movie fans. From fans of Matthew Vaughn‘s directorial work to comic book aficionados to the folks just excited to see McLovin live and in person (we sympathize with Christopher Mintz-Plasse – when he stepped out of the SUV and onto the red carpet, shouts of McLovin rang out from more than one quarter), the crowd was huge, excited, and clamoring to get inside and have a good time watching an entertaining film. Clark Duke, stopping in front of our bank of cameras, admitted that that standing there for photos “never gets less strange, no matter how many times you do it.”   Creators Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. had the biggest smiles of all as they walked into the premiere – their excitement about seeing the film launched into the world seemed boundless.

At least 100 badgeholders were left outside along with the line of pass holders, the theater filled to capacity and maybe even a bit beyond — an amazing turnout for an opening night flick. I’d absolutely tell you all about the movie, but after shooting the red carpet, I was one of those folks just a little too far back in the line to get in and see it — a pretty common occurrence here at SXSW. It’s not a bad thing at all, it just a good reminder that when you’re at SXSW, sometimes even the most careful planning won’t be enough. You won’t catch every single film you want to see here – if you prepare yourself for that early on, you’ll be fine. I can say this: from talking to a lot of folks here, fans, filmmakers and press alike, I can tell you that it exceeded expectations, a quite impressive feat given how very anticipated the film was.

The town is covered with every sort of Kick-Ass promotional item you can imagine: posters, flyers, a million handouts and T-shirts, SUVs, pedicabs and even a horse-drawn carriage went past with Kick-Ass flyer attached to it at one point (we’re only sorry we weren’t quicker with the camera to capture that one.) The Kick-Ass SUVs delivered the stars of the film to the red carpet, and then were deployed around town for festival-goers to use; they’re invited to make a video in the backseat while in transport to the venue of their choice.

Basically, if there’s a promo war going on, Kick-Ass certainly winning, hands down.