It appears the light side is alive and well in Vancouver.
David Vion, 30, is originally from France. He is not able to make it home for the holidays this year and was looking for something to do Christmas Day.
“I was browsing online for volunteering events for Christmas Day and I just decided to go watch Star Wars in the morning,” he said. That’s when the idea hit him.
Vion decided to buy two tickets to Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which opened in theatres Thursday night, and offer one up to the Vancouver Reddit community.
“I’m sure I’m not the only one who doesn’t have family to go home to for Christmas and that’s why I decided to put this on Reddit,” he said, adding: “I wanted to make someone else happy too and maybe meet someone in the meantime.”
The response from the local Reddit community came as a surprise. Vion wrote the post on Wednesday and it soon had more than 60 comments and over 500 up votes. Many people simply commented on the gesture with about a dozen taking him up on the offer.
“I was not expecting anything from it, to be honest,” he said. “I was a little bit surprised actually that so many people don’t necessarily have someone to go home to for Christmas.”
Vion said he chose to give the ticket to the first person who responded to the offer and the two have already made contact.
“We’re totally in the same boat,” he said. “She’s a Canadian Australian and left her family and friends back home and she’s working here in Vancouver.”
Star Wars: The Last Jedi opened in theatres with preview showings Thursday evening posting an estimated $45 million in sales for the second highest domestic preview gross of all time, according to a statement issued by Disney. The preview results are second only to episode seven in the Star Wars franchise, 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which brought in $57 million, and ahead of last year’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which brought in $29 million.
