LEWISTON — For a teenage girl on the verge of tears, Alex Wilson was pretty darn happy.
“I’m so excited,” said the 16-year-old, eyes wide behind the round eyeglasses with plastic frames. “I think I’m going to cry.”
What could inspire such emotion and such anticipation? Why, “Harry Potter,” of course.
It was nearing 10 p.m. inside Flagship Cinemas in Lewiston. That meant that the latest and final installment of the Potter series would be showing in less than two hours.
It was almost too heavy to be believed.
“It’s the last one. It’s the one we’ve all been waiting for,” said 16-year-old Ivan Pulido. “We’ve been talking about it all year. We’re pretty pumped.”
Pulido and his friend Zach rolled in around 8 p.m. That’s four hours before showtime. It would seem nuts to some people, but not to the group of girls at the very front of the line. That group got to the theater much, much earlier.
“Nine o’clock in the morning,” said Shane, the Flagship manager. “I kid you not.”
“We wanted first place in line,” said 19-year-old Marissa Lussier, who, with her cousins, spent the entire day on the floor just short of the theater doors. “We’re very devoted to ‘Harry Potter.'”
Clearly. The people who jammed the cinemas — here and elsewhere across the country — are notoriously unabashed about the depth of their enthusiasm for the “Harry Potter” saga. Ask Wilson if she felt the movie would be worth the long and weird wait, she’ll look at you like you’ve lost your mind.
“Obviously,” she said. “This is going to be the most intense movie ever.”
No argument from Allison Osgood. She understood Alex Wilson’s glee and also her pain.
“I’m going to bawl my eyes out,” she said. “Because it’s ending.”
“It’ll be done forever,” Wilson said.
All told, there were nearly 100 people waiting to be let into the theater. They played cards, read books, talked about the intricacies of Harry Potter’s life and times. The lobby smelled of buttered popcorn. It’s the kind of aroma that’s sweet and nostalgic unless you’ve been sitting there smelling it for two hours, or six or even the entire day.
All told, it was a long wait to sit inside a crowded theater to watch a movie that would make a person cry into Friday morning. Could it possibly be worth it?
“Oh,” Osgood said, “so worth it.”
mlaflamme@sunjournal.com
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- Zach Labadie of Lewiston sits in a lawn chair in the lobby at Flagship Cinemas in Lewiston reading a “Harry Potter” book while waiting for the start of the “Harry Potter” movie on Thursday.
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- “Harry Potter” movie fans play a game of cards in the lobby of Flagship Cinemas in Lewiston on Thursday as they wait for the start of the movie. Fans, from left, are Alex Wilson, Allison Osgood, Kirsty Beauchesne, Mikayla Parnell and Brie Wilson, all of Lewiston.
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