Bookings pour in for new Harry Potter

The franchise starring Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter may be coming to an end, but its popularity isn't. Photo / Supplied

With three weeks to go until opening night, tickets for the special midnight screenings are selling fast

The franchise starring Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter may be coming to an end, but its popularity isn't.

Tickets to the final instalment of the Harry Potter series are selling fast, three weeks out from when the film screens.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One will be screened from November 18 but Potter fever already looks to have arrived in Auckland.

Event Cinemas theatres around the city are selling hundreds of tickets to the film. Midnight screenings at the Queen St and Albany theatres are sold out, with Albany opening up another theatre to cater to the high demand for seats.

The midnight session in Newmarket only has 50 seats left, while that in Henderson's WestCity theatre is also filling up fast.

By yesterday afternoon, almost 2000 tickets had been sold at the Queen St branch and nearly 1000 tickets sold in Albany. Just over 500 tickets have been sold in Manukau City and there have been more than 400 bookings at St Lukes.

Westgate Event Cinemas - one of the least busiest theatres - has sold about 300 tickets to Harry Potter, while Highland Park branch has sold almost 200 tickets.

Workers at the Events Cinemas call centre - which receive calls for inquiries to all Events theatres in Auckland and around the country - report getting around 300 calls a day about the Harry Potter film.

Centre supervisor Morgan Iese said up to 70 tickets were being sold each day.

That figure was getting higher as the day of the screening approached. "We've had a lot of inquiries about it. People calling in, asking for tickets to Harry Potter - they're really excited."

Miss Iese said there was still high demand for tickets to midnight screenings and it was expected that theatres around the Auckland region would be making moves to cater to that demand.

"We usually open up more theatres closer to the time because there's just so many people wanting tickets.

"The last time we had this much attention was Twilight and [the Queen St cinema] had four midnight sessions.

"People drive all around Auckland just to see a movie first. They come from Albany to Manukau just to get a seat," she said.

Bookmyshow.co.nz - a movie booking website that sells tickets around the country - said bookings to the Harry Potter film were starting to "ramp up".

General manager Matthew Preen said: "It's actually going to be huge. People will soon start to see seats filling up and book fast.

"I would expect it to be a sellout across the board on opening night," he said.

With its complex storyline, directors decided early on to release the movie in two parts, the second of which will be in cinemas next July.