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Parents hop aboard 'Potter' movie mania
By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN It was nearly Potter pandemonium, with both children and adults lining up three hours before show time on Friday, the opening day for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. At Beacon Theatres on Cortez Boulevard, Potter buffs were lined up, some in chairs, when assistant manager Cynthia Zimmermann showed up at 10:30 a.m., she said. They were awaiting the first two showings, at 1:05 p.m. on one screen and 1:35 p.m. on another. "There were a lot of children not in school today," she said. "A lot of parents took their children out." Shortly after 4 p.m., the theater sold out the day's four remaining shows. "We're crazy busy. It's phenomenal," Zimmermann said. "We expect to do an enormous amount of business." Michelle Billingsly of Spring Hill and her group of three boys were able to get in for the 4:50 p.m. show before the sellout. But that's only because their tickets were bought last Sunday. For 18 months, her son Michael, 8, has been talking about this moment, she said. "I actually read two (of the Harry Potter books), but I skipped the second one and read the third," Michael said. The other two boys with him were his 7-year-old brother, Mickey, and 10-year-old cousin, Matthew Baker. As a teacher at Deltona Elementary School, Billingsly was just as excited for the children to see the movie as they were. "I think it's good for kids because they see what the imagination can do," she said. "Writing can be exciting and fun." Proving the movie was just as much for adults as children were Patty Predoehl of Spring Hill and her 8-year-old son, Joseph. Asked whether they were here for him to see the movie, a rather grumpy Joseph, hands in jeans pockets, said, "No." They were there for Mom. Joseph was along for the ride "to make it look good," Predoehl said with a sheepish grin. "The only thing I wanted to see was Monsters, Inc., but I've already seen that," Joseph said. Predoehl said she was attracted to the Harry Potter fantasy storyline because the "good guy wins." And with all the grim news in the real world today, she added, "it gives you a little bit of an escape."
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