Community Corner

Theaters Expect Crowds For 'Deathly Hallows 2' Premiere

The July 15 midnight screening of the last Harry Potter movie is expected to attract large crowds of muggles and wizard look-a-likes.

Movie reviewers are calling Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 a magical and fitting finale. “It’s wonderful,” writes New York Daily News movie critic Elizabeth Weitzman’s review of Deathly Hallows, “Epic and heartbreaking and just as grand as it needs to be.”

The AMC Lake in the Hills 12 theater will have a midnight showing Friday as well as several showings throughout the weekend.

For Harry Potter fans, the final movie in the series is the last step in a long journey that, for some fans, began more than a decade ago with the first books written by J. K. Rowling.

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Grayslake Patch photographer Leslie Lipps recalled how her daughter, Kathie, now 22, devoured the Harry Potter books.

“When the books first started coming out we would lose Kathie. She would start reading and not surface until she finished. The series has been great that way; it powered a love of reading,” Lipps said.

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Kathie Lipps said she has been preparing for the final movie by screening the first seven movies with a large group of friends. She and 12 of her friends will go to a Chicago IMAX theater for the midnight show on July 15. Some of them will be dressed in wizard gear.

Pauline Moll, a sophomore at Grayslake North High School, will stay close to home for the premiere. Moll and friends will see the midnight movie at Regal Theater in Round Lake. While waiting, they will entertain moviegoers with a scene from the parody, A Very Potter Musical, made popular on YouTube.  

“There’s this song Granger Danger, where Ron and Draco profess their love for Hermione. A friend and I are dressing up and we’re going to sing at the movie theater before it starts,” Moll said. “The series has a huge and dedicated fan base, so I’m expecting a lot of craziness.”

Fourteen-year-old  Sydney Myers of Buffalo Grove will come dressed as a death eater when she and her friends go to the midnight showing of Deathly Hallows at the Lincolnshire Regal.

C You At The Movies, which has theaters in Libertyville, Antioch and McHenry, will have midnight showings of Deathly Hallows 2, as well as offer a special outdoor movie experience on Friday evening. The McHenry Outdoor Theater will show Deathly Hallows 1 and 2 all week.

“We’re going to have a Harry Potter fest week at the outdoor theater,” said Scott Behn, general operations director for C You At The Movies. “Harry Potter has such a huge following, we’re expecting it to be crazy like a Harry Potter fan club celebration, like a big block party.” 

For some fans, only IMAX will do for the series finale. Andrew Orkild, a manager at AMC South Barrington 30, said tickets for the IMAX theater were sold out by the end of June. He said the theater will have midnight premieres in at least seven or eight theaters, in both 3D and 2D. However, those who want to attend a 3:15 a.m. IMAX show on July 15 still can get tickets.

Algonquin resident Casey Boehm, 18, had planned to see the movie at South Barrington’s IMAX, but could not get tickets. She and her friends instead will view the film on Elgin Cinema’s UltraScreen, which is 70 feet wide and three stories tall.

For many Potter fans, this last movie is bittersweet, heralding the end of an era of eagerly awaiting the next book, the next movie.

“I’m kind of sad; there won’t be another premiere to look forward to. But it’s not really the end because all the fans carry the story with them.  We’re not going to stop talking about it. We can keep rereading the books and watching the movies,” Moll said.


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