AZ among states wildest about 'Harry'; locals prove it

Arizona ranks fifth in states most excited about the new film "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," according to Yahoo Buzz, which tracks Internet searches to gauge a topic's popularity.

It's hard to imagine a locale more bewitched by the tale of the boy wizard, judging from the freaky scene at AMC Foothills Tuesday night. Hordes of eager moviegoers dressed up as witches and wizards, draped in cloaks with wands in hand, lined up hours before the movie's midnight debut.

Although theater managers would not reveal whether the screenings sold out, the madness at Foothills seemed to surpass the frenzy leading up to the "Star Wars," "Spider-Man" and "The Lord of the Rings" openings. A steady flow of costumed revelers — about one out of every four viewers dressed in Potter gear — filed into the theater more than 90 minutes before the film began.

Pottermania has reached a new high, with the fifth movie now in theaters and the seventh — and final — book in the series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," set for release on July 21.

"I think the thing people enjoy about Harry Potter and any fantasy would be that it kind of transcends reality," said H.L. Mullenaux, a 24-year-old medical-care professional who showed up at Foothills dressed as Hagrid, Harry's bearded, half-giant buddy.

"It gives you the ability for one night, or while you're reading the book or whatever, to kind of put aside what you grew up with, being so serious and concerned about life, and you can think about something else — the possibility of 'if the rules of the world as we knew it weren't true.' It's just something different."

Harry's next trick is to etch his name in the record books.

There's a chance "Order of the Phoenix" will eclipse "Spider-Man 3's" opening-weekend record of $151.1 million. Each of the first four Potter films has hovered near $100 million in the debut frame, but ticket-price inflation and renewed enthusiasm for the series give the new film — the last anticipated mega-blockbuster of the summer season — a fighting chance.

"Phoenix" opened at 4,285 theaters nationwide, second highest in history to the 4,362 that screened "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" in May. So ubiquitous is the film in eight Southern Arizona theaters that you could conceivably watch the 138-minute movie four times a day this weekend.

Gina Duenas, 24, a retail manager, plans three viewings in as many days. She bought advance tickets for the 10:15 a.m. Wednesday screening at the Century Park Place 20 and dragged friends with her to the theater. Duenas, who reeled off Potter trivia so quickly it made her friends laugh, also pre-purchased tickets to see the film on Wednesday and Friday nights.

"Some people think it's weird, but it doesn't bother me," said Duenas, one of more than 50 fans lined up outside Park Place more than an hour before the show.

Tuesday night at Foothills, Erin McDaniel, Julia Roncesvalles and Angie Hermes — all 17-year-old Salpointe Catholic High School students — masqueraded, respectively, as Harry's friend Hermione, the evil sorceress Bellatrix Lestrange and the stouthearted Nymphadora Tonks. The girls made their costumes out of a smattering of purple hair color, cloaks and T-shirts marked with Sharpies. Two carried wands made up of rolled-up printer paper.

At 17, the girls are the same ages as the cast members and grew up with the films. Roncesvalles mentioned she re-read all six Potter books in the week leading up to the movie's opening.

Mullenaux, in his dead-on Hagrid disguise, stood nearby in a group of 20 costumed adults who covered close to the entire gamut of Potter characters. Mullenaux's wife, Kimberly, made H.L.'s unruly locks out of a costume-store beard, and fashioned his animal-pelt coat from materials she found at a fabric store. "We worked on it for a couple hours last night," H.L. said of his costume.

Nearby, apparently wowed by the Hagrid costume, was 8-year-old Scarlet Houk, who was at the midnight show with her family. She said she prepared for the night by taking a nap before the screening. "One hour and 10 minutes," she beamed, looking up at her dad, who wore a shirt that read, "Vader Was Framed."

The scene at El Con at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday was far more subdued. Shoe-store manager Brian Taylor, wife Danielle and their four boys were the only ones waiting outside the theater. "They told us it would be crowded and that we should show up by 8 a.m.," said Danielle, the first in the family to read each new Potter book.

Brian said the popularity of the series has made it less taboo for adults to geek out on Harry Potter.

"It was weird for a little while. I'd tell a co-worker, you know, a 40-year-old guy, I liked Harry Potter and he'd go, 'Oh, really?' " Brian said, adding a bemused look. "It used to be that way. Now, not so much."

Watch Phil Villarreal's review of the new Harry Potter film and read StarNet's blog "Muggle Musings" at azstarnet.com/harrypotter