HOLLYWOOD - Get ready for the next Harry Potter boom at the box office.British fans eager to see the upcoming sequel Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets were frantically buying tickets Friday, a full two months before the film opens.
Reuters reports that advance tickets went on sale across Britain, and the tremendous response leads insiders to believe that sales will surpass the record-breaking first installment Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
Odeon Cinemas, the main theater chain in the U.K., told Reuters that they had to triple their staff to accommodate the high number of calls coming in from people who wanted tickets.
"We're expecting sales to be even higher than they were for the first film because the second book is even more popular," a spokeswoman for Odeon said.
The sequel finds Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and pals Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) returning to the Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft for their second term, only to find a new evil force terrorizing the students. The film, directed once again by Chris Columbus, also stars Kenneth Branagh, Alan Rickman and Richard Harris.
The film opens in the U.S. and the U.K. on Nov. 15.