Harry Potter Mania

History was made yesterday. Well I guess technically this morning. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (HBP) set the midnight gross record, according to Variety. HBP made $22.2 million, beating Dark Knight by about $5 million. This of course was predicted before the movie came out.
I was lucky enough to experience the madness first-hand. I went to the 12:01 am showing with some friends. I bought a shirt of Ron Weasley, played by Rupert Grint, and waited at the theater since 4pm. The theater unfortunately said they wouldn't let us start a line until 5 pm, which honestly I don't understand. It's Harry Potter. This is big. I for one thought people would camp out, but I guess people weren't that excited about it. A couple of my friends went at around 9 am to wait. The manager told them to come back at 5, bribing them with the HBP life-size cutouts. I wish I got one.
The line starting getting longer at around 7pm. By that time, the theater had lines for 5 showings. It was such an exciting atmosphere. Although, the manager got mad at a couple of groups, including ours. Lets just say the size of our group tripled. But we couldn't really do anything about it. Some of the people waiting in line with us turned out to be friends of friends of OUR friends.
Finally the doors opened to the theater. Auditorium 4. My favorite number. How lucky. As we sat down on our seats, which i might add were perfect, some people were separated. It's a shame you can only sit next to two people, but there is really no other way to arrange seating now is there? I sat next to the two biggest Harry Potter fans I know. I felt a bit intimidated. I've only read through the series once so I don't know every minute detail like those two. But it was worth it. We constantly looked at each other and smiled for the next scene we knew was coming.
Lights dimmed. Everyone screamed. Then we realized it was only the previews. Not the best to add before HBP. Now, it got even darker. Warner Brothers logo showed up. Opening Scene. HARRY POTTER!