Office parties set to dash children's Potter dreams

Children eagerly awaiting next week's film premiere of Harry Potter might have to wait weeks to see it because tens of thousands of tickets are being booked up by "corporate customers" in advance.

Britain's main cinema chains have been besieged with requests from businesses and schools eager to book dozens or hundreds of seats for the long-awaited Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, which opens on November 16. While some are arranging medium-sized group outings for their staff in the run-up to Christmas, others have asked to hire out entire cinemas for exclusive screenings for VIP guests.

News of the bulk buying trend emerged as the UK's main cinema chains admitted they had imposed no limits on the number of tickets individual customers could buy in one go.

It comes as early indications suggest the (pounds) 100 million blockbuster is on course to break all advance-booking records. Since the first tickets went on sale a week ago, around 300,000 have already been sold, and many preview and opening week showings are already full up.

Odeon, which has set aside nearly half of its 599 screens for the debut movie adventure of JK Rowling's boy wizard, received more than 20,000 inquiries before its box office had even opened for business. At least eight companies have since asked to hire out its entire 2000- seater Leicester Square cinema for their employees, and schools and local authorities are also understood to have made block bookings.

An Odeon spokesman confirmed the company had already sold 100,000 tickets.

A spokesman for UGC Cinemas, which is showing Harry Potter on 127 of its 405 screens, said "business-to-business sales" were part of the chain's "strategy", but could not confirm how many tickets had been booked by corporate clients.

However, a spokesman for UCI Cinemas said it had handled many calls from companies keen to book rafts of seats or even whole screens for "corporate hospitality events".

UCI, which has devoted 180 of its 369 screens to the film, has also arranged a series of "adult only" performances.

A spokesman for Warner Cinemas, which has already sold 50,000 advance tickets said the company was "considering a number of requests" for private showings, to be arranged in addition to normal screenings.

A spokesman for Warner Brothers, the movie's producers, said that the company could not dictate individual cinema chains' ticket selling policies.

Nonetheless, the willingness of multiplexes to allow block bookings was criticised last night by the leaders of a pressure campaign opposed to the record-breaking (pounds) 70 million three- year marketing tie-in signed between the film's producers and Coca- Cola. Through its website, saveharry.com, the American-based Centre For Science In The Public Interest has sent 5244 emails to Warner, Rowling's publisher, Bloomsbury, and her literary agent, Christopher Little, urging her to reject further sponsorship offers and donate the royalties received so far to nutrition charities.

For those who do get to see the film, the next battle is getting through the two hours 34 minute running time without losing the plot or bursting to go.

Under normal circumstances most child psychologists would agree that two and a half hours would be a long time for children to sit with sustained attention.

However, Dr Vicky Houston, of Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, believes if anyone can do it then Harry can.

"It's a long time under normal circumstances for children to be watching a movie but these are not normal circumstances. Harry Potter is a phenomenon and the children are absolutely intrigued," she said.

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