Tuesday, January 11, 2011

A Wizard Rivals Mickey

ORLANDO, Fla. — Pottermania is supposed to be winding down. The final 784-page tome in the series has been published. Shooting for the last movie has wrapped up. And J. K. Rowling herself recently sent a text to Daniel Radcliffe, the actor who plays her boy wizard, with a message that was unmistakable: It’s over.

But try telling that to the throngs at the new Harry Potter theme park here, where people are routinely turned away because of capacity crowds. Never mind long lines for rides inside; there are waits of up to two hours just to enter the Ollivanders merchandise shop, where staffers struggle to keep the shelves stocked with Potter-phernalia.

The must-have Florida trinket these days is not a set of mouse ears. It’s a $30 wizard’s wand.
“It was a bit expensive, but I had to have it,” said Steven Butler, 19, who flew down from Canada to visit the park, inside the Universal Orlando Resort here, and described the experience as “totally overwhelming.”

The unexpected, turbocharged success of the $265 million Potter playland has not only given a new bounce to Ms. Rowling’s literary creation, it has also ignited Florida’s version of the Jets versus the Giants: a friendly hometown rivalry between Universal and Walt Disney World.

Full story at New York Times.

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