"Potter" advance tickets outpace "Transformers"

British actors Rupert Grint (L-R), Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe arrive for the world premiere of ''Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince'' at Leicester Square in London July 7, 2009.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Advance sales of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" are outpacing those of current box-office champ "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and of 2007's "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" at a similar point in their sales cycles.

Eight days before its July 15 opening, "Prince" accounted for 65 percent of daily ticket sales, online ticketer Fandango said Tuesday.

Fandango said a poll of more than 3,000 visitors to its Web site found that 85 percent of respondents had read all seven Potter books. "Prince" is the sixth Potter movie of a planned eight; Warner Bros. is splitting the seventh book into two movies.

"'The Half-Blood Prince' is turning out to be one of our fastest-selling titles of the year," Fandango COO Rick Butler said.

Fandango began selling "Prince" tickets June 17.