CINEMAS were packed during the witching hour in East Lancashire as midnight showings of the last Harry Potter film sold out.

Queuing fans at Burnley’s Apollo Cinema and Blackburn’s Vue took their first available chance to see the last instalment of the film saga.

Many had made sure they could grab a seat by pre-booking tickets, while others began arriving up to two hours early.

Both cinemas catered to over a thousand customers each for the midnight showings and there were multiple screenings in both 2D and 3D.

At Burnley’s Apollo, Sarah Carmichael, 27, from Barrowford said: “I’m a really big fan and think the films have been getting better each time.

"I hope this one is true to the book, I will be really disappointed if not.”

17-year-old Megan Thomas from Briercliffe said: “ I have been really looking forward to seeing this one, if it’s as good as the rest, I’ll be happy. I think it will be.”

Her friend 18-year-old Ashleigh Cairns said: “We’ve seen all the Harry Potter films at the cinema and were afraid we wouldn’t get a chance with this one unless we pre-booked.

"We’re happy with the way we’ve been able to walk straight in.”

Burnley Apollo manager Andrew Smith said: “It’s gone really well.

"When we sold out, we decided to open another screen to keep things moving and that sold out too.

"We’ve had just short of 1,000 customers for Harry Potter and that is definitely not an ordinary night”.

At Blackburn’s Vue, 35-year-old Claire Tattersall, from Blackburn, said: “We pre-booked a week ago.

"We have been waiting to see it a long time so we came tonight, though we were worried about it being too crowded. I think they’ve managed it really well though by opening extra screens and letting people in early.”

Charlotte McCready, 18, from Wilpshire said: “I was quite keen to see it, but we only came half an hour before.

"I’m surprised how smoothly its going, we expected to be queuing for ages.”

One Harry Potter fan who caught the midnight screening pronounced it ‘superb’.

Zoe Crilly, 32, from Blackburn, said: “It was just brilliant.

“Though I watched it in 3D, it might have been better in 2D, because there was so much going on.

“They did change a lot from the book, and cut a lot of detail out, but even so they did it justice.

“I always prefer the books but their decision to scale back detail made it work well on the screen.”