Arts & Entertainment

Harry Potter Marathon Starts Today Just Over the Key Bridge

Georgetown theater playing entire series this week, culminating in release of final Potter film.

There are plenty of Harry Potter fans out there - probably thousands in the D.C. metro region alone.

Washington resident Jennifer Tharp is one of them. She’s read all the books and watched the first seven movies. She’s planning on buying an advance ticket to see “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” when it opens in theaters nationwide this week.

"I feel like the last (movie) kind of left you with a huge cliffhanger," said Tharp, an intelligence analyst at the White House. "I know what’s going to happen but I still like to see it on the screen."

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When it comes to Harry Potter fanaticism, though, even Tharp ranks low.

AMC Loews Georgetown 14 will be separating run-of-the-mill fans like Tharp from the true blue Harry Potter die-hards when it shows all eight Harry Potter films starting today.

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The theater is one of only a handful across the country that will run the complete movie franchise, beginning with the first two movies on Monday night and ending the marathon with the premiere of the final installment at 12:01 a.m. on Friday.

The marathon movie ticket costs $45 and includes a ticket to see the final film. Moviegoers will also receive a “commemorative lanyard” and a “retrospective booklet.”

It’s 1,179 minutes of Harry Potter movies in four days. Almost 20 hours of Hermione, Harry, Hagrid, Hogwarts and horcruxes. For Tharp, that time commitment is too extreme.

"I work 12-and-a-half hour days," she said. "There's not much time after that for anything but sleeping."

AMC spokesman Ryan Noonan said the company will not publicly release the numbers of tickets sold to the marathon, but explained the event was organized at the request of these die-hard fans.

“We’re holding the Harry Potter – Eight Movies in Four Nights - event at select locations because it’s something our guests were asking for, and we wanted to give guests as many options as possible to enjoy the final film in the Harry Potter series. For some, that means experiencing the entire Harry Potter film series on the big screen,” Noonan said.

The $45 ticket is available for purchase online or through the theater’s box office, located at 3111 K St. NW in Georgetown.

Harry Medved, a spokesman for Fandango.com – an online ticketing site – said last week more than 2,000 showtimes for the final film have already sold out across the country. It is the fastest-selling movie to date this year, he said.

“People feel like they need to be there for the finale. It's more than a movie. It's an event,” Medved said, likening the experience to attending a prom or a high school graduation.

“It’s kind of wistful. But it’s also gratifying to see (the characters) grow up and people don’t want to miss that,” he said.

Tharp agreed she has mixed feelings about watching the last movie. "It is a little bittersweet," she said.


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