Final Harry Potter film: Star-studded U.S. debut

Thousands of fans bid an emotional farewell to their favorite teen wizards at the U.S. premiere of the last "Harry Potter" movie.

It was a celebrity-filled red carpet event in New York, as the cast turned out for the screening of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two." It's the eighth installment in the epic series.

Photos: World premiere, in London, of "Deathly Hallows: Part Two"

As CBS News correspondent Manuel Gallegus reports, there were cheers and screams for Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry.

Special section: Harry Potter through the years

He says he'll miss the action, such as "bursting out of a lake surrounded by a ring of fire, or falling down a 40-foot roof. That's fun! That stuff's crazy and mad and fun, and you don't really get to do it that often as an actor. So I will miss that."

Radcliffe added that he'll "also miss the crew and cast and everything that was my day-to-day life

for ten years."

Many fans camped out - some for days - to get a glimpse of Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint -- likeable stars who are forever a part of their childhood.

"We wanted to make a big deal about it and let everyone know that we were diehard and insane and intense about it," one fan, from Florida, said.

Harry Potter is, says Gallegus, a phenomenon -- the biggest franchise in Hollywood history, with more than $2 billion in U.S. ticket sales for the first seven movies.

Remarkably, Gallegus points out, the original cast stayed together until the end.

Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy, says, "It's kind of like an unspoken bond between us all, I think, because we've come through this all together, and we're very lucky to have that."

And for a decade, fans never lost interest, and it's hard to say goodbye.

"It's very bittersweet," said one. "I might just start crying once the credits roll."

Emma Watson, who portrayed Hermione Granger, said, "It's exciting. I'm going to go traveling after I'm done with this." Where to? "I'm not even sure yet."

The stars are no longer those wide-eyed kids who entered Hogwarts so long ago.