In 2007, the British Museum's First Emperor exhibition sold more than 150,000 advance tickets before opening. Five hundred same-day tickets were still released daily, bringing unticketed visitors into a morning queue. On opening day, a line described as historic in scale gathered on the steps, while admission inside was limited to 400 people an hour.
Timed tickets prevented a repeat of the all-day outdoor lines associated with the 1972 Tutankhamun exhibition. They did not abolish waiting; they divided it into a queue for scarce day tickets and a controlled flow at assigned times.
The modern order for seeing ancient soldiers was built from two numbers: the first 500 buyers and 400 admissions per hour. A blockbuster queue had shifted from competing for physical space to competing for a place in time.