SHEFFIELD — About 900 people who sacrificed sleep overnight to be the first to see the latest “Twilight” move, “Eclipse,” left the theater disappointed when they didn’t get to see the end due to projector problems.

According to Ryan Yates, manager at Regal Cinemas’ Cobblestone theater, several inches of film misfed through a single projector that was piping the movie into five different theaters.

Moviegoers were given passes to come back and see the move at another time, he said.

That solution doesn’t cut it for Chris St. Peter of Elyria.

She was at the movie with six children — her own, her nieces and a child she baby-sits — ranging in age from 6 to 15.

“The kids waited and waited to see this,” she said. “It’s a big deal for them to stay up that late, and to stay up late to watch it and be disappointed was just awful.”

St. Peter said there were signs of impending technical issues near the beginning of the movie when the color went out for about five seconds.

She said the movie went out about 2:10 a.m. She said showtime was 12:10 a.m., but there were several minutes of previews, so she assumes she missed 15 minutes to a half-hour of the movie.

“It was right before the big fight at end,” she said. “The wolf jumped out and ‘poof.’

Beside being mad she missed out on the movie, St. Peter is upset about how it was handled. She said even though the movie went out at 2:10, she and the kids had to wait until after 3 a.m. to receive their passes.

Commenters on The Chronicle’s Facebook page said theater employees were being rude and screaming at people. Kellie Kinas of North Ridgeville, who said she was in Theater 1 with her daughter, said that wasn’t the case in her theater.

“Employees were not rude at all,” she said. “The movie went out at 2:11, and they came in about 2:45 and said it was going to be five minutes (for the passes) and they were doing the best they can.”

She said employees explained they wouldn’t be able to get the film fixed in a timely fashion, which is why they were giving people the passes to come back.

But St. Peter said she and others plan to call Regal. They want something done, she said, even if they have to take it all the way to the corporate headquarters.

St. Peter estimates she spent about $70 on movie tickets and another $40 on concessions. If she goes again, she explained, she’ll be out another $40 because she’ll have to buy the children all new food from the snack bar.

St. Peter said all 20 theaters at Cobblestone had sold out about 6 p.m. yesterday. She said there were people in her theater who drove from Westlake because that theater was sold out.

Her niece got to the theater about 6:30 p.m. because she was watching “Twilight” and “New Moon” prior to the midnight showing of “Eclipse,” and she called her at 9 p.m. to tell her that the line for the 12:10 showing was already starting to form. By the time she got there, it was wrapped around the building, she said.

“It was a very good movie, but that ruined it,” St. Peter said of missing the ending.

Gates directed all questions about further compensation for moviegoers to his general manager, who will not be in until tomorrow.

So is St. Peter planning to go back?

“Of course,” she said. “Although I am mad at the situation, I really want to see the rest of the movie!”