When Weinberg freshman Christine Oh went to buy tickets Friday for the Nov. 19 midnight premiere of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1,” she and her friends called Century 12 Evanston in advance to make sure the theater still had seats. The manager told them tickets were still available, the Weinberg freshman said. But when the group arrived at the theater two hours later, they were told the screening had sold out - more than three weeks ahead of time.
After negotiating with the manager, Oh and her friends were able to purchase 10 tickets the theater had not planned to sell.
“I was just happy we could get our way around it and get our tickets,” Oh said.
Because Century 12 sold out two theaters this weekend, the theater opened a third showing which has since sold out again. Tickets first went on sale for the Evanston theater Oct. 16, according to Fandango Fan Alert. The theater may or may not open more theaters, Century 12 assistant manager Tiffany Harris said.
“It’s kind of a competition to get tickets,” said McCormick freshman Sherry Jiao, who has a ticket to the midnight premiere in Evanston. “They’re hard to get, and it’s a big event.”
Some students who were unable to buy tickets in Evanston, like Medill junior Sydney Bucksbaum, are going to different theaters.
“I was shocked to know that Evanston was sold out,” said Bucksbaum, who has been to the midnight premiere of every Harry Potter movie and book.
She and her friends bought tickets to the Regal Gardens movie theater at Old Orchard in Skokie because they have a friend with a car.
The Skokie theater is only showing one midnight premiere, but the tickets have not sold out yet. Joe Managa, manager of the theater, said they might open more theaters as well, but the number of tickets is not decided by him or the people who distribute the Harry Potter movies.
“I’m sure they would love to have their movie in as many theaters as possible, but it’s determined by our film bookers,” he said.
This movie is the seventh and final of the series, marking the end of the Harry Potter era. The movie will be broken into two parts, with one being released this November and the other premiering in July 2011. Several NU Potter fans said that going to the midnight premiere is important because it’s a tradition they’ve been practicing for years.
“Everybody’s really excited to see the final movie,” said Jiao, who has been to several midnight Harry Potter premieres. “I think it’s just more the excitement of getting ready and seeing all the other Harry Potter nerds and the satisfaction of being the first people to see the movie,” she said.
Jiao said, however, there was one bad part about the midnight showings - party crashers.
“I hate it when Twilight people come to cause drama and make the Harry Potter people mad,” she said. “They have their night; this is ours.”
