Harry Potter poised for a BIG opening night

I bought my tickets for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince midnight opening around 4pm today. To my surprise, I was the last person to get a ticket. All 18 screens at my local theater have sold out. This is crazy. Transformers 2 is the only other midnight opening I’ve seen sell out, but not until a few minutes before midnight. NCG Cinema (I live in Lansing, Michigan) is even opening up some 3am showings to accommodate demand.

Even odder, there were Potter-ites playing little Quidditch board games, wearing robes, and holding wands already…and they had been there since lunchtime. No one waited for 12 hours to see Transformers 2. Harry Potter 6 may set a midnight opening record for the series.

I made calls to the other major theater in the area, Celebration! Cinema, and they have sold out 11 shows (of 12 possible) and had Potter-ites hanging out as well. Every theater in Lansing and East Lansing has sold out at least one midnight showing of Harry Potter and has had to open up additional screens to accommodate demand. 

Granted, this is only data from Lansing, Michigan, but Potter fever seems to be at a high. Positive early reviews of the movie (here’s one from Roger Ebert) may have helped. The last entry in the series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix grossed $44.2 million its opening day, which was also a Wednesday, almost exactly two years ago (7/11/2007).

Wish me luck. It’s gonna be a crowded one. I’ll do a bit of tweeting from the front lines. My Twitter handle is @JeffreyVC for those interested.

If anyone else has similar stories, please comment.