Before the Dark Knight rose early this morning, several local residents woke considerably earlier, staking out spots at 8 a.m. Thursday outside the Edwards Valencia Stadium theaters to watch the last installment in the Batman movie trilogy.

“It’s ‘Batman’ — come on,” said Monique Carriere, of Lancaster, who was among those who arrived first to await the midnight screening. “It’s better than ‘Spiderman.’ Who wants to go to that?”

The conclusion of Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” trilogy is something that Brian Rinper, of Castaic, couldn’t miss.

“They’ve been building it up so much for the other two movies,” Rinper said. “We have to see how it ends.”

The movie wraps up the trilogy that kicked off with 2005’s “Batman Begins” and continued on with the crowd-pleasing “The Dark Knight” in 2008.

Fans, most in their teens or early 20s, came well-prepared for a day outside in hot temperatures with laptop computers, blankets, snacks and cold drinks. By 3:30 p.m., about 50 fans were waiting in groups outside the theater.

By 5:30 p.m., the midnight showings at both the Valencia and Canyon Country Edwards theaters for “The Dark Knight Rising” had sold out, although there were still tickets available for later showings Friday morning. Valencia offered 11 showings, and Canyon Country offered four showings in the early morning hours.

One group had prepared extensively for their long wait with a television and Xbox setup so they wouldn’t get bored.

Most of the members of the group had not camped out for a movie before but said “The Dark Knight Rises” couldn’t be missed.

One of the teens even brought a musical instrument.

“We’ll play the guitar later,” said David Knopf, of Valencia.

Local Batman diehards were awaiting the midnight showing.

“Bane — he’s a really awesome villain,” said Emma Aycock, of Valencia.