opening box office ever for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's

Stone, several analysts suggested today (Friday). "There is really a

groundswell from the movie-going public, as opposed to just hype created

by the studio's marketing of the film," Tom Borys, president of

box-office trackers ACNielsen EDI, told Bloomberg News. In Canada,

Joanne Fraser, corporate affairs vice-president for the Famous Players

theater chain, told the Toronto Star: "The buzz for this film has

been like nothing we have seen before." Today's Wall Street Journal

forecast that the box office will be driven by the "ferocious

loyalty" of the Potter fans. Many of those fans lined up at

theaters Thursday night to be the first to see the movie at midnight

screenings. Virtually all were adults (although several brought their

children, presumably impatient fans). Fifty-one-year-old Marilyn Senders

of Plymouth Meeting, PA told the Associated Press: "I loved it. ... I

can't believe it was two-and-a-half hours. It felt like 10 minutes." But

English teacher Suzie Thetard of Normal, IL told AP: "I still love the

book more. ... There's just so much more to it. Little things that don't

make the movie bad but enrich the book so much."