The cover of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

It’s life in the times of Pottermania — from bookstores to multiplexes. With a day to go for the fifth film and a week to go for the final book in the Harry Potter series, the buzz about the boy wizard is growing with every passing hour.

Weekend bookings for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix opened at noon on Wednesday and drew Potter fans in droves. There are 25 daily shows in the four multiplexes, with Nandan, New Empire and Menoka adding to the numbers. Harry Potter aur Phoenix ki Fauj will broaden Harry puttar’s support base in Basusree and Mitra.

“We registered extremely good bookings on Wednesday,” says Saurabh Varma of INOX. “The advances registered so far are a good 40 per cent higher than Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in November 2005,” he adds.

At INOX (City Centre), the Friday bookings are better than any given English film, confirms Subhasis Ganguli of INOX. Prashant Srivastava of 89 Cinemas also reports “good initials”, including group bookings from multinational companies and banks.

For once, putting the screen scramble in the shade will be the craze for the printed word. The frenzy for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is “unprecedented”, stress bookstores.

“The demand is 30 to 40 per cent higher than the previous Potter books. We have placed an order of approximately 1,500 copies,” reveals Sidharth Pansari of Crossword.

Starmark has received pre-bookings for at least 450 copies. “There’s so much of a hype, that Potter fans want to pick it up as soon as it releases. We have ordered 1,000 copies, learning from last time when we had ordered 600-700 copies (of Half-Blood Prince) that sold out by the second day,” smiles Gautam Jatia of Starmark.

Oxford Bookstore has received 500 online bookings and another 2,000 bookings at its two stores. “This is 15 per cent better than last time,” says Rajiv Chowdhury of Apeejay Oxford Bookstores, which is bringing in about 6,000 copies. “Sales are maximum within three-four days of the launch, because after that, everyone finds out what’s in the book.”