Harry Potter fans expect 'nothing less than awesome' from Friday morning's release: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Movie theaters opened their doors Thursday night to the world of magic for the premiere of the latest “Harry Potter” movie.
Celebration Cinema, 4935 E. Pickard Road, sold out of tickets the Saturday prior to the midnight showing of the seventh movie in the series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” said operations manager Greg Howell.
“We were just shy of 1,500,” Howell said.
The first group to get to get to Celebration arrived around 2 p.m., Howell said. The main groups of movie goers did not start lining up until about 8 that evening.
Clare resident Alyssa Venable, 16, said she and her friends waited in line for about a half hour before being let in.
Venable came to the movie dressed in a cape and striped scarf.
“Our Homecoming theme was ‘Harry Potter,’ so I had it picked out for about two months,” Venable said.
She received tickets the first day they were available and said she hoped Deathly Hallows would be the most epic thing she ever saw.
St. Clair Shores senior Lauren Hicks said she read the books since she was little. Her favorite character is Lupin.
“He is very down to earth,” Hicks said.
She said she liked the books more than the movie but it made sense to split it into multiple films.
Among the die-hard fans at the movie theater were members of the Harry Potter Alliance registered student organization.
The group is dedicated to using Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore to help spread love and fight the dark arts in the real world.
“(We) promote social justice issues,” said Livonia sophomore Nick Armes.
Sterling Heights senior Alyssa Chrisman said the group helped to put on events and set up games at the theater for the opening of the movie.
“We had trivia (and did) dueling,” Chrisman said.
The group came to the theater at 8:30 p.m. to get ready for the movie.
A third member, Muskegon senior Michelle Kordecki, said she was happy the movie was split up because it will allow more material to be taken from the book.
“(The other movies) missed a lot of sub-plots,” Kordecki said.
