Love and magic at 'Harry Potter' midnight showing in New Jersey (original) (raw)

By Laura Martin/The Star-Ledger

NEW BRUNSWICK -- Most couples celebrate their anniversaries with romantic dinners and gushy cards, but for Staci Brown and Steve Castro, nothing said love tonight like Harry Potter.

"When we found out that our anniversary fell on the night of the Harry Potter show, we were ecstatic," said Castro, 22, of Raritan, as he waited at the AMC Loews theater in New Brunswick with Brown, 17, of East Brunswick.

The couple, who have been dating for eight months and are engaged, were first in line to see the latest film in the boy wizard series.

But they were not alone.

Some 2,000 fans bought tickets and waited on line to get a seat for one of the sold-out theater's six midnight showings of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." Many other movie theaters in New Jersey also offered midnight showings tonight. Plenty of fans, fearing they would not get into the show, pre-ordered their tickets.

Fandango reported to have sold out 2,500 midnight showings for the film throughout the country, with the movie representing 98 percent of the daily ticket sales on its site.

Even fans who purchased their tickets beforehand had fears. And some, Brown and Castro included, showed up as early as 7 p.m. in hopes of seeing Harry Potter and his friends from the best seats in the house.

"I was really excited about today," said Caroline Dougherty, 27, of Milltown. One could say Dougherty is a full-blood fan of the 'Half-Blood Prince.'

"It took every ounce of my soul not to yell out 'Happy Harry Potter Day' (Tuesday) at work,'" she said. The office worker noted she took today off in anticipation of her late night.

The previous Harry Potter film, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, grossed $292 million domestically, the second-biggest moneymaker after the 2001 Harry Potter original. The latest movie made from the seven-book series by J.K. Rowling is expected to trump "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" as the biggest movie of the summer.

The midnight moviegoers waited a long time to see book six brought to the screen, and many were disappointed after Warner Bros. moved the release date from November to yesterday due to the 100-day writers' strike last summer.

The film finds Harry in his sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as he tries to unlock the key to defeating the evil Voldemort and his followers. With the help of professor Albus Dumbledore, Harry and his friends begin to prepare for the final battle between good and evil, all while navigating their increasingly complicated teenage love lives.

Because many people who attend Harry Potter movies also are fans of the books - 85 percent have read all seven according to a Fandango survey - many of the midnight crowd weren't as concerned with discovering new plot twists as they were with exactly how the novel would be portrayed on film.

Saed Hindash / The Star-Ledger

Staci Brown of East Brunswick and Steve Castro of Raritan had a magical eight-month anniversary as they waited to see "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" in New Brunswick tonight.

Mixed reviews by film critics (The Star-Ledger's Stephen Whitty gave it 2 1/2 stars), did not dissuade those waiting to see the movie.

"I think the movies are getting better each time in terms of adapting from the books," said Terri Socha, 26, of Princeton. She and her movie pal, Dougherty, both had lightning bolts adorning their foreheads in honor of Harry's signature scar.

Andrew Avrutin of East Brunswick, an 18-year-old dressed as groundskeeper Hagrid, said he's never read the books.

"I decided to go check out the (first) movie, and then I was hooked," he said.

Although it is the second-to-last book, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" will not be the second-to-last movie. Warner Bros. has announced it plans to split the last book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," into two movies that will be released late 2010 and summer 2011.

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