Kaycin Regrai (middle), 19, of Roanoke jokes with Emily Skaar (right), 18, of Salem during the intermission of the movie marathon, which began at 9 a.m.

John W. Adkisson | The Roanoke Times

Luke Munson (center left), 17, and Jake Morrison (center right), 19, recline in lawn chairs while taking part in a "Harry Potter" movie marathon Tuesday at Roanoke's Carmike 10. The event led up to the midnight release of the newest film in the series.

Brady Jax was right where he wanted to be on a perfect, 82-degree summer day abounding with sunshine and a sea-blue sky:

Indoors, in the dark, wedged into a packed theater watching 18 consecutive hours of "Harry Potter" movies.

"I love this," said Brady, a 13-year-old boy from Floyd. "I'm away from my sisters."

Instead, he was at the movies with his mother, a family friend and nearly 170 other Muggles who spent all of Tuesday watching a "Harry Potter" marathon at Carmike 10 at Tanglewood Mall. The day started at 9 a.m. with the first of five previously released "Potter" movies and was scheduled to end with the midnight premiere of the new film, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."

Tickets for the marathon, which included all six movies and two catered meals, was $24.50 -- popcorn and Twizzlers not included.

The theater sold every seat for the marathon, Carmike Cinemas employee Eric Osti said.

"I couldn't be happier," he said. "I guess I wish it could be cleaner in there, but when you've got 170 people watching 18 hours of movies, what would you expect?"

Some moviegoers came prepared for the long haul, bringing blankets and pillows. Four teenage buddies ignored the plush theater seats and stretched out in lounge chairs near the front row.

"Those seats can get uncomfortable after a while," said Sal Russo, 15, a rising sophomore at Roanoke Catholic School.

Debi Hogan of Bent Mountain attended with her 17-year-old son Chase. She said they had considered watching all the movies at home before hearing about Tuesday's marathon.

"It's better to watch it with Harry Potter fans," she said. "Everybody yells, everybody's into it."

The marathon was a way to get pumped up for the new movie. Some equated it with watching hours of Super Bowl hype.

"It's like the pre-game," said Adrian Rector, 24, of Roanoke.

Rector and her friend, Malcolm Perry, 23, were decked out in familiar Potter garb -- robes (their graduation robes from the College of William & Mary worked perfectly) and neckties. Several rows up, four young ladies wore wizard hats and scarves.

The cast grew up before the audience's eyes. Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry, was barely 11 when the first movie was filmed. He turns 20 later this month. Co-stars Emma Watson and Rupert Grint are 19 and 20.

"I hadn't seen the first one in a long time," Rector said, "and I thought, 'They're so young and so tiny!' "

Not everyone was enthused about the early curtain call. Mariel Wilson, 18, said that she slept through the 9 a.m. feature -- "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" -- after getting barely three hours of sleep during a sleepover the night before. Still, she made good on her promise to take her 13-year-old brother, Connor, to the marathon.

"Last week, he looked at me with those puppy-dog eyes, so I had to bring him," Wilson said.

Her mother couldn't make it?

"She has better things to do with her day," she said.