Last week, the Student Government of Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences did the most magical thing that any Muggle governing body could possibly do: they secured 511 discounted tickets for a private screening of the upcoming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1.
The IMAX screening will take place at Loews AMC Theater at 8pm on Thursday November 18; that’s is four hours before the movie’s wide-release launch at midnight.
The CAS Student Government made a Facebook event for the screening last Tuesday, and it didn’t take long for the number of users who RSVPed “Attending” to exceed 1,000.
The event now has nearly 1,700 would-be participants, but whether or not all of them are eligible to go is questionable. Because of its popularity, the event is limited to CAS students only. “We have such a great demand for seats that to make it fair, we have instituted a one ticket max per student,” said CAS Student Body President Rushil Desai in an email to the Quad.
According to Desai, pre-midnight screenings have to be requested by theaters and approved by Warner Brothers. Though they are relatively common, CAS has never taken advantage of them before.
“Initially we were going to have the event at Regal Fenway because it was closer to campus,” Desai said. “When we called to book a theater for Friday they told us… Boston College had already booked the theater for Friday night and that they were only able to do one private screening per day.” Though the student representatives tried to secure a screening for Saturday night, Regal rejected them. But they were not ready to give up yet. “We then tried AMC Loewes Boston. We asked for a Friday screening but they informed us that since we are booking an entire 511 seat theater, we could do a screening before the premier. Naturally, we grabbed this opportunity.”
So what was initially a crushing defeat at the hands of BC became something infinitely better: a chance to see Harry Potter before most of the rest of the country.
Tickets are limited and interest is large, so mark the date on your calendars: half of them will be sold between 6 and 7 on November 9 and the other half, at the same time on November 10. They’ll be sold for five dollars in CAS room 319.
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