About 50 people gathered in a line outside Liberty Hall in downtown Lawrence this morning, waiting to buy tickets for tonight’s opening of the controversial Michael Moore documentary, “Fahrenheit 9/11.”

The line started forming about 9 a.m. for the documentary. And about 150 tickets were sold immediately for the documentary, according to Rob Fitzgerald, Liberty Hall’s cinema manager. Liberty Hall’s main theater holds about 550.

Movie review

The theater will begin show the documentary at 4:30 p.m., 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. tonight.

First in line this morning was Bryan Newbury, Lawrence, who said he had been waiting in his fold-up chair in front of the box office since 9 a.m., waiting to buy 20 tickets for himself and friends.

“I’m a Michael Moore fan anyway,” Newbury said. “(With) the furor over this movie, you can’t miss it,” Newbury said.

Fitzgerald said the film will probably continue to be shown into the fall, when Kansas University students return to Lawrence.

(For more on this story, see the 6News reports at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Sunflower Broadband’s channel 6, and pick up a copy of Thursday’s Journal-World.)