Whoa! Major news, Harry Potter-heads: the much-anticipated Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will no longer be released November 21, 2008. Warner Bros. has pushed the release of the film to July 17, 2009. To find out why, read more.
Warner Bros.'s President and COO, Alan Horn explains in a press release:
Our reasons for shifting Half-Blood Prince to summer are twofold: we know the summer season is an ideal window for a family tent pole release, as proven by the success of our last Harry Potter film, which is the second-highest grossing film in the franchise, behind only the first installment. Additionally, like every other studio, we are still feeling the repercussions of the writers' strike, which impacted the readiness of scripts for other films — changing the competitive landscape for 2009 and offering new windows of opportunity that we wanted to take advantage of. We agreed the best strategy was to move Half-Blood Prince to July, where it perfectly fills the gap for a major tent pole release for mid-summer.
Here's what struck me: the July 17 slot is the exact same weekend, one year later, of the release of Dark Knight which obviously proved beneficial for Warner Bros. Still, it's a huge disappointment for HP fans who have been waiting excitedly for the November release of the next movie.
In funnier news, the Fall movie preview edition of Entertainment Weekly (which arrives today) features Daniel Radcliffe on the cover.
Anyway. Thoughts?
Vanessa Bruno
Robe Di Firenze
Start London
wtf?! this sucks so bad.... there's one thing to push a movie back, but to july?! damn warner bros!!!! damn uuuu!!! lol sorry
1I'd comment something worthwhile, but I'm crying.
2really really sucks
3NO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4OMFG!!!
Major disappointment
That sucks! DH and I were just talking this week how it is coming up and we are so excited.
5
6My first reaction: NOOOOOO!!!!
7Ah I hate you WB ... oh well, just means more press time for Twilight
8crapola!
I go with my little sister-in-law and her friends to see it at midnight every time (she's not so little anymore..almost 21)...we always dress up and you just gave me a really funny idea...I am going to have potter head t shirts made...lol
9wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Too much time!
10translation: we are beyond greedy so all of you stupid fans will have to wait much much longer. I'd boycott it but I will be the only one who suffers. Or maybe I'll just skip in cinema and download it illegally? I have to ponder on this.
11I'm not happy about this.
12That's pretty much a load of poo!
13hanako — That's an awesome idea! I think you should.
I'd like to see those t-shirts.
14I am so P!SSED.
15It Frikkin figures, they moved Star Trek and now this. whatev.
16this is beyond disappointing, it just shows how greedy these companies are and how little they care for the fans.
17also they are afraid of the competition that twilight will bring after 2 weeks.
this is beyond ridiculous and i still can't believe we have to wait a whole year before we can see it.
HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN!? ughhhh
this sucks!
18BOO.
19omg Twilight has NOTHING on Harry Potter.
the studios are just greedy & want more money. ugh so ridiculous. the November release date would have been great because the nest weekend is Thanksgiving!
20actually, it's sounds rather fiscally responsible to me....
JUST KIDDING!!! i'm beyond upset! i'm just about done with the books because i was SOO excited when i saw the previews for the half-blood prince, i decided to read them all. craptastic.
21so angry!!
i was looking forward to this so much.
22I'm so upset...So now instead of waiting 3 months, we have to wait 11. That just Sucks!!!!!!!!!!!
23ugh. that's ROTTEN. but at least i can dress up with the same friends i dressed up with last year instead of my university friends... yeah, not helping.
24Oh man. I am sooooooo bummed. I have to wait until next summer?!
25see - to me things like this prove that it's about the all mighty dollar. i think that there's something to be said about pushing the opening of a movie so that you can make more money - and then justifying it with the strike and all that. it could be true - but who knows.
i do wonder what other movies were set to open in November that maybe cause the delay as well. sometimes the competition makes you want to shift an opening so you can be the blockbuster and hold the #1 spot with a lot of $$
i guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens. there will most likely be so much buzz around this movie anyway that we'll hear about it for months prior to the release.
26Beyond disappointing...
So with the domino effect of delayed release, does this mean that Daniel Radcliffe will be about 25 by the time the final movie is released? Ugh.
27You know what... it really doesn't bother me. It's just prolonging the Harry Potter experience... Am I only one who limited the number of pages I read each day so I wouldn't finish the last book too quickly???
28BULL****!!!!!!!!!!!!!
29What the hell is a "family tent pole release"? Quirky lingo that coincides with camping since it's summer? This is really disappointing.
30Ugh, everything is the worst. I can't wear the Ravenclaw house scarf, hat, and mittens I knit for myself in July, I'd just look stupid.
Not a drop of that is sarcasm, fyi. I'm totally serious.
31Craptastic, This is way to close to the bar exam to see it before and my plans immediately after are written in stone...doesn't Warner Brothers care about the budding barristers of the USA?
32laurlee - the bar exam didn't stop me from seeing Dark Knight at midnight opening night, so don't worry about it - you'll deserve a couple of hours off by then
Also, the release of the last movie, and the book being in the weeks shortly before my wedding didn't stop me from a midnight showing and a marathon session of reading book 7!!
The delay is really unfair, especially since the previous release date coincided with my bar result date, so I would have something else to make me happy that day in case results weren't what I expected.
33I've recovered a little.
It's not even just the Dark Knight weekend they're hoping to profit off of- it's also the fact that there is NOTHING coming out next year thanks to the strike and it's causing studios to panic. Even still, I couldn't be more disappointed. That's a two year break between films and anything Potter related, since the 7th book came out a week after the 5th film was released. Ridiculous.
34redegg — "Tent pole" in terms of movies refers to the movie (usually a heavily promoted blockbuster) that the studio assumes will turn a large profit quickly, and make up for the studio's other movies that have failed over the year (so, it's "holding up" the studio, like a tent pole).
35Oh f**k you WB! I´m so angry. I was totally looking forward to November to see Half Blood Prince, and now I´ll have to wait for almost a year?
36Ughhh...
GAHHHHHHHHH! Seriously. I just REREAD the entire series this summer because I was so excited for the sixth movie lol woooww GOD I'M SO MAADDD
37AHHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
38BUmmer! I actually was thinking this would be a fun Wintery kind of movie. I don't want to wait almost a year!
39No, what a bummer
40That's rubbish!!!! This seriously makes me sad!! Boo WB!
41this sucks so much!!! i was lookin foward to the movie, i don't know whether to laugh or cry!
42What a lame excuse to push back a movie release! I'm so disappointed.
43I am pissed the hell off, to put it lightly. I was sooooo excited.
4410 months?!?! UGH!!!! So they put the AWESOME trailer out, get our hopes up, then squash them to bits. They're lucky I can't live without the series, otherwise I'd consider boycotting.
So I thought that the first movie part of the 7th book was supposed to come out in 2009, is that going to be pushed back too?
45Bummer! I was getting so excited about this too. Just today my friend and I were talking about how we were going to go to the midnight premiere.
46ann418- the plan all along was to put the 1st part of the 7th book out in July 2010, so that will probably stay the same, if maybe pushing a few months or so. Then they'll probably put the 2nd part out in Summer 2011. So it'll be 3 years or so before we start to see the end of this franchise. Then there's always prequels...
47NOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!
48Hmm. . .Rupert Grint is looking pretty good these days, lol.
49Aw, thanks Buzz!
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