‘Harry Potter’ Works Magic at the Box Office

Inside Hollywood’s Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, young Harry Potter fans, garbed in pointy witch’s hats and wizard’s cloaks, squirmed and crawled over their seats until the lights dimmed.

With the opening shot, a first glimpse of Harry’s house on Privet Drive, shrieks of joy soared from the crowd. They whooped again when Harry scored the winning play in Quidditch, the Hogwarts School’s distinctive flying game.

But for most of the movie, the only sound from the crowd was adult laughter--children sat stone-still, utterly entranced.

For millions of Harry-philes, the wait was finally over, as America took a break from anthrax scares and the war in Afghanistan to revel in the big-screen adventures of their hero, making the launch of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” the biggest in film history.

On its opening day Friday, the Warner Bros. film took in an estimated $31.3 million on more than 7,000 screens--both records. The box office was expected to be even higher Saturday, which means that “Harry Potter” could take in close to $100 million in its opening weekend. The previous record holder for an opening weekend was “The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” which raked in $72.1 million in 1997.

“We’re in uncharted territory here,” said Tom Borys, president of the box office tracking firm EDI/Nielsen. “Harry Potter,” he said, “is hitting all demographics and age groups, with a weighting towards the kids.”

But it wasn’t just the ticket sales that made “Harry Potter” remarkable. Despite lukewarm critical notices, the film was embraced wherever it played with a fervor that combined elements of a religious revival and a rock concert.

Aiyana Bobrownicki, 11, of Irvine got so caught up that she found herself clapping along with the on-screen Hogwarts students whenever they clapped. Her father, Peter, said his daughter had been so excited she “came close to shaking to see this movie.”

Indeed, for many, the countdown to H-day was excruciatingly long. Every morning for the last year, Adam Ruelas, 10, of Irvine had announced the number of hours remaining until the release of the movie.

He’s read the four books in the series four times. “Each,” he clarified. The tape plays constantly in the car. He belongs to the Harry Potter League, a group that meets twice a week at Westminster Mall to play the Harry Potter trading card game.

Parents Swap War Stories

“We’re the faithful,” said Adam’s mother, Tawny Terborg, as the pair, dressed in homemade wizard’s cloaks, waited in line at the Irvine Spectrum 21 megaplex, having arrived at 11 a.m. for the 8 p.m. show Friday.

Parents standing in “Harry Potter” lines at theaters all over Los Angeles swapped war stories involving their attempts to get tickets to the film. In the rush to secure enough seats for their children, their children’s friends and whoever else might come, several parents ended up buying more tickets than they knew what to do with.

Ruth Benton may have them all beat. Planning to take her kids and their friends to the film at Universal CityWalk on Saturday night, she purchased six adult and 13 children’s tickets. When the children could not wait until the second day of the movie’s release, she ended up taking them to the Chinese Theatre on opening day instead.

At the Chinese on Friday, some children standing in line for the 3:15 p.m. showing appeared to be taking advantage of their early dismissal from school for parent-teacher conferences. The timing of the conferences and the opening of the movie created the feeling of a school-sanctioned Harry Potter holiday, as if educators knew their classrooms would not be able to compete with his popularity.

For Some, Rewards and Celebrations

Some parents, though, had to take matters into their own hands. Cyndi Schmidt of Santa Monica took her 9-year-old son, Jake, out of school early to attend the movie.

“He got his book report back today, which he did on ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,’ and he was the only one in his class who got a perfect score, so it’s a good reward,” she said.

Ten-year-old Zoe Valentine went to the movie with friends to celebrate her upcoming 11th birthday (the same age as Harry Potter). She wore a high, pointy wizard’s cap, although she claims she feels no special connection with the boy wizard. “Just that his personality is like mine,” she said of her interest.

At Universal City, fans scooped up Harry merchandise as they stood in line for the film.

As she surveyed a gift stand selling Hagrid dolls for $23.99, Mary Favela explained that she had first bought her 9-year-old son, Erin, one of the Harry Potter books to get him into reading.

“We’ve been reading it together for half an hour a day,” she explained. She has also been buying and stashing away Harry Potter trinkets to give to her son as he makes his way through the story.

Erin, a shy boy with brown eyes, clutched the latest addition to his collection: a winged ball known as the Golden Snitch. His favorite character is Hagrid, he said, but he keenly eyed a three-headed dog priced at $20.

Friday’s $31.3-million box office broke the mark for a single-day gross--previously held by “Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace,” which took in $28.5 million in 1999. But that record is likely to be short-lived. Warner Bros. distribution head Dan Fellman expected “Harry Potter” to “get a bump” Saturday because kids are out of school and special group sale rates go into effect. Last year’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” climbed by 40% from Friday to Saturday on its way to a $55-million opening weekend.

The highest-grossing film ever is the 1997 epic “Titanic,” which took in more than $600 million in the U.S. and $1.8 billion worldwide.

Many critics have complained that the “Harry Potter” film is overly faithful to the book, lacking any of its own animating spirit. Yet adherence to J.K. Rowling’s bible appears to be the prime criterion by which fans are judging the film.

As the end credits rolled, moviegoers at the Chinese and the Universal City theaters ignored the names of the director, Chris Columbus, and the star, Daniel Radcliffe, but clapped wildly for Rowling.

Afterward, the crowd streamed out, with many rushing to the bathroom because their mesmerized children had forgone their usual trips to the restroom. Others were wildly dialing parents and friends on their cell phones to render their verdicts.

Faster than a wave of the wand, all the incipient wizards and witches had morphed into incipient Eberts and Roepers.

“I liked it, but I found that they made a lot of mistakes in the movie. They skipped some things and said some things wrong,” said Sebastian Hearn, 10, of Los Angeles.

‘It’s Better to See It’

Aiyana Bobrownicki was more enthusiastic. Although it’s wonderful to imagine a world of flying, magic wands and invisible cloaks, in the end, she said, “It’s better to see it.”

At the Mann Criterion on the Santa Monica promenade, assistant manager Shane Kuroda supervised a seven-person crew of ushers as they cleaned out the theater after the 7 p.m. showing. Kuroda reported that the theater had opened at 7:30 a.m.

His team looked valiant but tired, like front-line workers battling a tide of spilled soda pop and crushed popcorn. Potter fans, in his assessment, were younger than those who showed up to see “The Phantom Menace.” “They’re also messier,” he said.

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Times staff writers Lynn Smith and Sorina Diaconescu and freelance writer Richard Natale contributed to this report.