After being delayed eight months from its original release date last November, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is poised to become a huge summer blockbuster when it opens Wednesday.
The sixth movie in the hit franchise boasts the largest budget - $250 million - of any of the films so far, which indicates that the special effects and overall atmosphere of the wizarding world could be top notch.
It has been more than 10 years since the first book was released in the United States, and nearly eight years since the first movie, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," opened. The "Harry Potter" brand has netted its author, J.K. Rowling, more than $1 billion and the title of second-richest woman in entertainment, according to Forbes.
Since the beginning, midnight showings of the films have become synonymous with the brands' worldwide fanfare, which is now worth more than $15 billion.
Tickets for the midnight shows have been available for about a month, and as of Sunday night Kerasotes Muncie Showplace 12 had sold out its 12:01 a.m., 12:02 a.m. and 12:03 a.m. showings. Tickets for the 12:04 a.m. showing were still available.
Senior photojournalism major Cassandra Adamson said she discovered the books when she was in sixth grade. She plans to be at the 12:03 a.m. opening of this film.
"I picked [the first book] up and became a fan almost instantly," she said. "I don't think [this movie] will be like the first movie because I was shaking I was so excited. Now it's like a nostalgic thing for me."
Graduate student in student affairs administration in higher education Jessa Patterson is planning on attending the 12:02 a.m. showing of the movie Wednesday morning.
"I started reading the books around the time that the fourth book came out," she said. "And when the first movie came out I was hooked. As each movie has progressed, to see it go from a children's story to the actual meat of the story has been great. There is more and more mystery and adventure."
"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is based on the book of the same name. The sixth book was the fastest-selling book in history, according to Guinness World Records, until that record was broken by the seventh book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." The sixth book has 652 pages which have been translated into 153 minutes worth of film.
In this book, the tone is drastically bleaker than the previous five books, with the every day Hogwarts lessons, romances and Quidditch matches overshadowed by a war waging between Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters and the rest of the wizarding community - which, at times, spills over into the non-magical world.
"I think the movies are getting better and better each time around," Adamson said. "As they get darker, they're getting better."
And as the movies near the end of the series, fans are trying to make the most out of the midnight show experience by dressing up as their favorite character, touting their own wands or wearing homemade T-shirts.
Adamson said she will be wearing a pair of lightening bolt earrings she owns, while Patterson said she may go a bit further.
"I might use a Sharpie and put a lightening bolt scar on my forehead, but that's the extent of it," she said with a laugh.
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