Harry Potter Casts One Final Spell

Megan Parfet showed up at 10:30 p.m. Thursday night for the midnight showing of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.” She was already a half-hour late.

Impatiently waiting was friend Shannon Gregory, dressed in her “I'd get sleazy for Ron Weasley” T-shirt. The two were among hundreds who went to Waterford’s to see the first showing of the last movie in the eight-part series.

“It’s just so exciting,” Gregory said, who is 21. “The first movie came out when we were in sixth grade and we’ve just grown up with it.”

“We’ve been excited for this for a while,” Parfet added.

At 11:15 p.m., the entire front parking lot of Regal Cinemas was filled, with several cars parking on the grass. All tickets were sold out to the six midnight showings (four regular, two 3-D), but people wanted to get there early so they could get the right seat.

Theaters began filling up and closed by 11 p.m., Parfet said. The line just to get a seat filled the entire lobby. A small percentage dressed up as characters, with many wearing Hogwarts hoodies.

Money, Money, Money

Before the lastest Harry Potter even opened, it sold $32 million in advance ticket sales in the United States, obliterating the previous record, according to Bloomberg news. The previous record was $30 million by “The Twilight Series: Eclipse” in 2010, according to examiner.com.

The first seven movies already took in $6.37 billion in ticket sales alone, according to Bloomberg. Overall, 450 million Harry Potter books, all written by J.K Rowling, have sold worldwide.

Not that the movie was cheap. The latest Potter cost over $400 million to make, advertise and release, according to the L. A. Times.