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Harry Potter fans sell out Village 8

There's really only one way to herald the end of the Harry Potter era: to sip the young wizard's beloved Butterbeer and watch every one of franchise films for 19 straight hours.

 

There's really only one way to herald the end of the Harry Potter era: to sip the young wizard's beloved Butterbeer and watch every one of franchise films for 19 straight hours.

Samantha Shrimpton and eight of her friends spent all day Tuesday holding a Potter movie marathon, starting at 5:25 a.m. in preparation for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow - Part 2, the long-awaited finale of the highly popular movie franchise."After the first movie, it was so early in the morning and I was so tired, I said, 'Are we really, really going to do this?' But it was like, OK, we do have to do this," said the 16-year-old Shrimpton.

The film signals the end of an era for Potter fans, many of whom were dressed in costume outside the cinema Wednesday. Some were waiting for hours, though the crowd was nowhere near as large as those lining up outside Metro Vancouver theatres that same day.

"I did expect it to be a little crazier but it's Whistler, right? It's not too, too busy because it's a really small theatre," Shrimpton said.

Still, the cinema sold out three simultaneous screenings of the film. Village 8 Cinemas general manager Seán Quinn said he could not give specific numbers of tickets sold but noted that two of the screenings had sold out days before, while the third sold out Wednesday night.

Critic and fan response to the film has been mostly positive. As of Friday, the film has earned $126 million internationally and broke the record for midnight screenings in the U.S. and Canada, raking in US$43.2 million in just one night.

And now that it's over, fans like Shrimpton will have to find some other fantasy world to keep them entertained...or will they?

"I'm actually about to go re-read the books," she said with a laugh.