Children frozen out as businesses block book Harry Potter film tickets

Children eagerly awaiting next week's film premiere of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone might have to wait weeks to see it because tens of thousands of tickets are being booked by "corporate customers" in advance.

Britain's main cinema chains have been besieged with requests from businesses and schools eager to book dozens or hundreds of seats at a time for the long-awaited film which opens next month. While some are arranging medium-sized group outings for their staff in the run-up to Christmas, others have asked to hire out entire cinemas for VIP guests. UK's main cinema chains admit that they have imposed no limits on the number of tickets individual customers can buy in one go.

Early indications suggest the £100m blockbuster could break all advance-booking records. Since tickets went on sale a week ago, around 300,000 have been sold, and many preview and opening week showings are already full. The scale of the bookings is bound to raise fears that, by the time the film comes out on 16 November, only a handful of seats will remain for the first few weeks.

Odeon, which has set aside nearly a half of its 599 screens for the debut movie adventure of J K Rowling's boy wizard, received more than 20,000 enquiries before its box office had even opened for business. At least eight companies have asked to hire out its entire 2,000-seater Leicester Square cinema for their employees.

An Odeon spokesman declined to specify who had made the bulk bookings, describing the information as "commercially sensitive". But he confirmed the company had already sold 100,000 tickets, 20,000 of them for showings at its Leicester Square cinema, where the film's premiere will be held next Sunday.

A spokesman for UGC Cinemas, which is showing Harry Potter on 127 of its 405 screens, said "business to business sales" were part of the chain's "strategy", but could not confirm how many tickets had been booked by corporate clients.

However, a spokesman for UCI Cinemas said it had handled many calls from companies keen to book rafts of seats or even whole screens for "corporate hospitality events". Advertising agencies and media businesses were among those keen to entertain clients with champagne receptions followed by exclusive screenings. "It's happening all over the country," she said, adding: "Usually, when companies ask to book whole screens they are talking about morning showings."

UCI, which has devoted 180 of its 369 screens to the film, has also arranged a series of "adults only" performances. A spokesman for Warner Cinemas added: "There have been quite a few enquiries from companies, ranging from requests for 40-odd tickets for preview screenings right up to requests for exclusive screenings for more than 100 employees."

While the company was "considering a number of requests" for private showings, these would be arranged in addition to normal screenings for the public.

A spokesman for Warner Brothers, the film's producers, said that the company could not dictate individual cinema chains' ticket-selling policies. None the less, the willingness of multiplexes to allow block bookings was criticised last night by the leaders of a pressure campaign opposed to the record-breaking £70m three-year marketing tie-in signed between the film's producers and Coca-Cola. Through its website, saveharry.com, the American-based Center for Science in the Public Interest has already sent some 5,244 emails to Warner, Ms Rowling's publisher, Bloomsbury, and her literary agent, Christopher Little, urging her to reject further sponsorship offers.