San Diego Comic-Con International runs four days each July at the San Diego Convention Center on the waterfront, drawing around 130,000 attendees to what began in 1970 as a small comics convention and has grown into the central event of American popular culture marketing. The convention floor covers 460,000 square feet; the panel programming runs simultaneously in 50 rooms; the Hall H auditorium seats 6,500 people for major film and television announcements.
The convention is both an industry event and a fan gathering — a combination that creates a particular energy. The floor is genuinely enormous, requiring full days to cover, and the programming outside the convention center (signings, screenings, activations, parties) spills into the Gaslamp Quarter and the Embarcadero for the full week surrounding the convention.
Tickets sell out months in advance through a lottery system. Hotels in downtown San Diego book up equally fast. The convention has significant economic impact on the city — around $140 million annually — and there have been recurring negotiations about whether it should move to another city, negotiations that have so far resulted in San Diego retaining it.