Moviegoers hoping to secure tickets to the Island premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 may have wished for a Time-Turner or two yesterday, after the lone midnight showing sold out less than 20 minutes after the box office at Edgartown Cinemas opened at 2 p.m.
Just 225 tickets were available for the first showing of the film, although with 23 more showings this week spread among Edgartown Cinemas, the Capawock Theatre and the Island Theatre, Potterphiles will have plenty of chances to catch Harry’s last movie appearance.
That knowledge wasn’t enough for Dallas sisters Emily and Carly Mondry, who braved Thursday’s morning downpour to stake out their place in line at 5:30 a.m.
“This is the first one I’ve tried to be really early for,” said Emily. “It’s usually the book [releases that we go to].”
“It’s all part of the fun,” added Carly. “It’s the last hurrah—you gotta do it right.”
By eleven in the morning, more than 30 people had joined the Mondrys in the lobby, armed with reading material (surprisingly, not all of it was J.K. Rowling-penned) and iPads to pass the time. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire played on one laptop.
By quarter to one, the queue for tickets had begun to spill outdoors onto Main street. A half an hour later, it wrapped around the block.
Inside, Molly Conole and Lynn van Auken sat on the floor playing Crazy Eights. As the designated ticket-buyers for their families, the two had arrived at 9:30 a.m. and were safely ensconced at the front of the line.
“We live and breathe Harry Potter in our family,” said Mrs. Conole, reminiscing about the previous Potter premiere she had attended, which was not shown at midnight.
“This is the way it’s supposed to be,” she said. “We’re in sync with the rest of the Harry Potter world.”
As if to confirm Mrs. Conole’s words, a last-hour plot twist worthy of Prisoner of Azkaban took place at ten minutes to two—the line on the street was so long that the Edgartown traffic patrol had to ask the cinema to open the doors early to keep foot traffic manageable. The Mondry girls headed upstairs, hoping to continue their long wait outside the theater door itself, but crowd control policies prevented this.
“We sat at the victory table—and then they told us to go back downstairs,” said Emily.
No matter. With tickets now in hand, the sisters settled down in the lobby, where they planned to stay until midnight. Connor Murphy of Shrewsbury, who was second in line and had been waiting since 9 a.m. to purchase tickets for himself and his father, joined them, producing a small bottle with a Muggle potion (5-Hour Energy Drink) in it as he did so.
Asked if they planned to see the movie again tomorrow, the three remained unsure.
“We’ll probably be sleeping,” Emily said.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 will be shown at Edgartown Cinemas today at 3, 6, 9, and 12.
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