While we have new photos from “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” and news about “Deathly Hallows” (see below) to occupy our time, reaction to the news that HBP has been pushed back until next July continues to dominate the press. Today, the LA Times has a new article online that notes the furious reaction by Harry Potter fans (“among the most intense devotees in contemporary pop culture”), and points out that “petitions were circulating, rumors were flying and angry screeds were being posted on Internet sites within minutes of the Thursday announcement.” The fact that fans were upset with the announcement of the new release date was not lost on Warner Bros president Alan Horn. The LA Times included this gem that reads as follows. “Horn acknowledged that the studio would have to pacify fans in the months to come: “We would never do anything to hurt one of the movies or the series. We love our fans.”
On a related note, the rescheduling of the film has impacted other events tied in to the previously scheduled release this fall. The BBC reports that indeed the Royal Performance and UK premiere of the film had been canceled.But he was hopeful a Royal premiere would still go ahead this year.
In the same article, WB’s Alan Horn is also cited as saying “I’ve seen the movie. It is fabulous. We would have been perfectly able to have it out in November.”
Among all the disappointment, there is a bit of bright news for IMAX who announced that “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince would be screening on the day of release, July 17, 2009. Reps for the company also said that “when “Harry Potter” does open next summer, it will appear in close to 100 of its new digital theaters, as opposed to about 40 estimated to be in operation by November. “It’s a better revenue opportunity for us at that point.” IMAX says that, as announced previously, they will also release HBP which will contain parts of the film in 3-D.
“We love our fans”?? WE LOVE OUR FANS???
What a xxxx are he saying??? He shocked us!!! He added 8 months at our waiting, and he said things like that???
No movie company pushes a release date that far back unless there’s problems. There’s too much money tied up for it not to be recouped as soon as they can.
Plus, there are agreements, promotion tours. There’s just no way they would push a movie that far out when it’s a mere 3 months away from it’s premiere.
Now HP will have to go up against the regular crop of Movie premieres (Including Transformers 2 which hits a few weeks before). And yet, November – there’s nothing coming out except Bond and that’s not in competition.
I realise that in the space of time it took the executives at Warner Bros to make the decision (and I appreciate how difficult it must have been), seems vastly disproportionate to the amount of time people like myself – hereafter referred to as “fans” – will now spend sending letters, emails and posting on fan sites. The subject of all this work: the removing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from the schedules in November, and placing it instead in July of 2009.
Again, I am sure you will receive many comments like mine today. I have no doubt of this; the Harry Potter fans are ardent, determined, keen to protect what they view as their property. I also have little doubt that this email (or any other) will make a button of difference to the juggernaut of Warner Bros. But – as is my right – I will convey my views all the same:
Throughout the Harry Potter phenomenon (somethign unprecedented, something we may well never see again), JK Rowling has always comported herself with the utmost grace, tact and intelligence. Where her fans are concerned (fans here meaning the people who put her work at the heart of their lives), she has been ever considerate, and passionate. The values her work extolls are of virtue, integrity and selflessness.
The same could not (and will never be said) of Hollywood: a place where millions upon millions of dollars are heaped upon material that is deplorable, artless and appeals only to the lowest possible denominator in society. Warner Bros stands at the pinnacle of this. No care, consideration or “integrity” has been shown by the decision to remove Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from its place in the schedules.
From the removal, I can glean two things: firstly, that the film has not turned out as expected (weren’t there screenings for the Executives this month?), and secondly – for money. The latter, I actually have little problem with: Warner Bros are a business, after all. The former is more worrying altogether. And it is for this reason that i will not be going to see Harry Potter next year.
I do not wish to be exploited or disappointed. I do not wish to witness what has happened to so many works of literature (The Golden Compass springs to mind), raped of their value and imagination. I do not wish – as a fan – to be treated with so little consideration, or respect. After all, who made Harry Potter the highest grossing series of all time: FANS.
The removal of the Premiere (which I gather had charitable motivations) also strikes me as odd, and not a little hypocritical: a film company, holding a charity screening, to benefit others? I can see now why this would have been at odds with the ethos of Warner Bros.
I hope you take my comments on board, even if you do not choose to truly hear them (that most symptomatic characteristic of the greedy corporation – the inability to listen).
Meantime, it is good to see that the black heart of consumerism is still alive and well, beating in the offices of Warner Bros.
If you have to come out and defend your actions and tell your fans you love them it’s pretty clear you’ve messed up good and proper. I guess they could prove it by doing a U-turn, but I doubt that will happen. It’s sad corporations are allowed to abuse their fan base like this. I wonder what JK Rowling thinks of all this.
Bull. That guy doesn’t give a flying ** about the fans, if he did he wouldn’t have done all this. He probably hears cha-ching! every time he’d say the word “fans.”
And i can’t believe that Potter was the cause of a cancellation in the Royal Performance for the first time since 1958. 50 years. Way to go, WB! That’s kinda pathetic, to be honest. Ugh…
They love their fans, yeah, right, because we’re the ones that spend all that money they are apparently so desperate to lay hands on…......they love us all right….....after all the money they have made on HP and from fans, I am incredulous that they would do this, just for the sake of the extra money it will bring in. They KNOW we will come out for the movie no matter what we do…...so they’ve got us where they want us and no amount of complaining on our part will make any difference. Also, just to let you all know, I contacted WB yesterday using the website’s feedback form. I was polite, but frank, and my message was rejected as spam. They clearly love us so much that they want to hear what we’ve got to say about this decision.
NEXT JULY?!? The film is practically done! Now we have to wait another year? I hope someone leaks the movie by then. That would give WB a good kick in the arse. This is such crap.
sorry, but what matters more? Harry Potter fans or IMAX profits?
Who exactly do Warner Bros. think they are? – Russia? and the fans are Georgia?
It’s perfectly obvious that WB think they can do what they want, when they want and how they want. How HP fans respond to this blatant lack of respect for us is an entirely different question!
Posted by weirdest of sisters on August 15, 2008, 03:56 PM
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Does anybody know why they chose to split the seventh movie?
The deathly hollows is shorter than the fith and forth book and the order of the phoenix movie was short enough! I have the feeling Warner only wants us to spend our money twice; as it seems that they are very interested in our money and not in what is best for the fans or the quality of the movies. So, I´d really like to know. Thanks!
To protest, hit them where it hurts. Send a letter to Warner Bros. informing them you plan to boycott all Warner Brothers films in the theaters and that you will deliberately see a competing film on the opening weekends of Warner Brothers films, as the opening weekend box office race is now all important to studio execs. Upcoming releases from Warner Brothers and its subsidiaries include:
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
The Women
Appaloosa
RocknRolla
Body of Lies
Pride and Glory
Four Christmases
Yes Man
It just seems like this decision, if it was going to be made, should have been made sooner. This isn’t something you decide quickly – if you’re going to decide to move a franchise film like this, this close to the release date, then that’s something that the studio will have been talking about for months, and I think that’s what makes me angry about it. We all understand that WB is a company, and is therefore there to make money. And the fiscal reality is that the movie industry has seen a drop in revenue, and that they probably can make more money in the summer. However, we’re also, as the article stated, some of the most committed fans in the world. We are very loyal to the franchise, and they know we’re going to see the movie either way. They had to know before now that they were going to do this, and even before the film was finished shooting. Why tell us now, when we’re so relatively close to the film, instead of months ago, when we were having a fit about the trailer?
And, here’s really the crux of it, for me: HOW CAN YOU RELEASE A TRAILER THAT AWESOME AND THEN MAKE US WAIT LONGER?! In a way, that makes the whole wait worse.
Posted by HeadGirlInTraining on August 15, 2008, 03:58 PM
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"I'd feel a lot better about the hearing if I knew I didn't have to go back to the Dursleys," Harry pressed him.[br]"They must be bad if you prefer this place," said Sirius gloomily.
No, Mr. Alan. You don’t give s…. and you know it!!!