A bit more on the decision to change the release date of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” from November of this year to July 17th, 2009 is now online. The Canadian Press has a new article on the timing of the move and the large feature on the film in the current issue of Entertainment Weekly. The article cites a rep for WB saying the studio had “mulling the date change for three or four weeks,” but “it really didn’t kind of get on the front-burner until sometime within the last seven days,” Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. head of distribution, said Sunday.
Entertainment Weekly’s “deadline must have been earlier than the decision, than when we started to get serious about making the decision,” Fellman said. The online version of the feature which we told you about here and here contains an update about the release date change as well as the following as noted on the magazine’s Hollywood Insider blog: “EW and Warner Bros. share a parent company, but they clearly do not share, you know, important … information.”
The blog goes on to joke that the date change will leave Entertainment Weekly “readers in possession of a ‘Dewey Beats Truman’ collectible.” It also notes that British film magazine Empire features Harry Potter on its current cover, though that issue is not strictly a fall preview, touching on big 2009 releases, as well.”
WB are greedy @#$&*^$.... it doesnt matter that 5 times now they have dominated the christmas season and made millions. The sad thing is even I will go to the movies when it comes out instead of telling them to stuff it. cripes potter has almost become a “Christmas Tradition” . Thanks Time-Warner… you have again ruined a good thing. If not for the bad karma kick in the pants I would wish bad things on you !
“Also HBP was chosen for the Royal Premiere in England this year, which is all for charity and it only happens once a year. WB changing the release date canceled the Royal Premiere and they may or may not find another movie for it. But the charities lose out on money, because of the change.”
That’s one of the most upsetting parts about the WB changing the film’s release date. The WB executives were probably just thinking about their own profits and didn’t care about the collateral damage that would result from moving the film to July.
Really, this whole thing just makes me very sad. I’ll still see the movie on its opening weekend, but the whole experience will probably feel very tainted to me.
The first line of the article says maybe Harry should have brought a note from his parents. Ummmmm someone should tell whoever wrote that article that Harry doesn’t have parents…..lol
No, It’s not. It’s copyright infringement. It’s NOT stealing. I wish people would stop saying that.
“Tell me, if you were pissed that your neighbor cut his lawn too early in the morning, would you steal his lawnmower?”
That’s a bad analogy. If I steal a physical object from someone, they don’t have it anymore. If I d/l a movie file, that doesn’t mean WB doesn’t have the movie anymore.
some of you people need to get off the cross already. sure, it sucks that we have to wait 8 more months for this movie, but this is hardly worth getting so riled up over. if the worst thing in your life is having to wait a little bit longer for a movie you want to see, then you should be counting your blessings, not cursing people who don’t really give a crap about you when they know you’re going to fork over your money regardless. it’s a shame most of you don’t get this upset and ready to take action over REAL injustices. grow up.
LemonFaerie said “I just love these people who come on here and post under anonymous things like’“L’ and ‘AA’ telling us to cool down. Why don’t you at least post your real screen name and stand by what you are saying when you call other people by name and tell them they are being ‘childish’”
There’s a manga (Japanese comic) series where there’s a character named “L”. He has a full name, but everyone just calls him “L”, as that’s the code name he uses throughout the series (and his full name only appears in supplementary material, as it is). So “L” might very well be someone’s “full” screen name.
It’s crap that they say it had been on the “back burner” for a while. WE ARNT STUPID, WB! Potter is a huge cash cow for them and any BIG dicision like bumping for stupid Twilight is the most rotten thing to do to loyal costomers and fans of Potter! Mabey they thought that Twilight will fuel consumer sales on all products for both Twilight and Potter..I dont know? The only thing that makes sense is that Potters winding down, coming to a close soon, and Twilight has a longer shelf life, and is somthing new for ticket buyers. EVERYONE WHO ATTENDS TWILIGHT, GO IN YOUR POTTER ROBES! And if they thought November was such a bad placement for Potter, why put their new BIG film, Twilight, in the slot, huh?
It’s crap that they say it had been on the “back burner” for a while. WE ARNT STUPID, WB! Potter is a huge cash cow for them and any BIG dicision like bumping for stupid Twilight is the most rotten thing to do to loyal costomers and fans of Potter! Mabey they thought that Twilight will fuel consumer sales on all products for both Twilight and Potter..I dont know? The only thing that makes sense is that Potters winding down, coming to a close soon, and Twilight has a longer shelf life, and is somthing new for ticket buyers. EVERYONE WHO ATTENDS TWILIGHT, GO IN YOUR POTTER ROBES!
It’s crap that they say it had been on the “back burner” for a while. WE ARNT STUPID, WB! Potter is a huge cash cow for them and any BIG dicision like bumping for stupid Twilight is the most rotten thing to do to loyal costomers and fans of Potter! Mabey they thought that Twilight will fuel consumer sales on all products for both Twilight and Potter..I dont know? The only thing that makes sense is that Potters winding down, coming to a close soon, and Twilight has a longer shelf life, and is somthing new for ticket buyers. EVERYONE WHO ATTENDS TWILIGHT, GO IN YOUR POTTER ROBES! And if they thought November was such a bad placement for Potter, why put their new BIG film, Twilight, in the slot, huh?
“There’s no valid business and financial reason to push to summer. The films make great money in November, shareholders don’t like delayed films, and WB knows it. The only logical reason for the delay is post-production issues.”
This is not about HOW MUCH money, it is about WHEN they make the money. As someone said earlier, they are doing this to move HBP profits from their 2008 balance sheet to their 2009 balance sheet – simple economics.
TDK has overperformed by about $250 million , they don’t need HBP dollars this year. On the other hand, with only one blockbuster (terminator:salvation) due for release by WB next year due to the writer’s strike delaying production on other films, they do need the HBP dollars in their 2009 balance sheet to make it look better.
Like I said, simple economics, no conspiracy theories, as much as simple economics sucks for us fans because of the delays.
So please stop regurgitating the rumours that the delay is because of production problems because that is total rot. The film is done for all intents and purposes. They still have to do test screenings – if they had been done, believe me Leaky and other sites like AICN would know about it by now, they always have in the past – and they will still do those now and not delay because despite the delay in release, Yates and Heyman need to lock this film and move onto working on DH which starts filming in February. If there were problems with HBP they would be delaying DH, they aren’t.
Also, let’s address the issue of delaying because it’s bad because it’s been done before. Yes, film studios delay films sometimes if they are worried about them, but they don’t delay them to the prime slot of mid summer in the US. They dump films they are worried about in February, or August/September, they DO NOT dump then in mid July, in the slot which OOTP made all it’s money last year, in the slot in which TDK made all it’s money this year.
It is very unfair on the cast and crew for these sort of rumours to be spread around as it casts aspersions on the hard work they have put in on this film. I am quite sure that those involved in the actual making of this film – as opposed to the suits in Hollywood – are as upset about this delay as we are, even if only because ridiculous rumours like this are able to be spread.
So, let’s give the conspiracy theories a rest shall we because, as they said in the LA Times article on this, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, ie it’s just about the balance sheet, nothing more suspicious than that.
Wow-I just woke up in the middle of the night and literally said this out loud to myself-i think i have an idea why they moved it--the movie is rated R. They are hoping more kids will have turned 17 by the time it comes out so that parents will let their kids go-the hugest audience. More “family tentpole” get it? Sure, I might be stretching it, considering the rating hasn’t even come out yet, but most movies have been rated by the time they have less than 100 or so days before release. Let me know what you think…...
look folks, until they tell us directly, we don’t know that true reason. Uninformed speculation accomplishes nothing.
I work with many of the film studios on a daily basis, and in my experience, there are a few reasons films are pushed back or shelved. 1 – its terrible (i’ve seen many titles that never even made it to video release). 2 – competition films or the studio wishing to focus their PR machine on a nearby release (nothing worse than jeopardizing your own box-office returns). 3 – the film needs more time in post production (rushed films always lead to disappointment).
I’ve read that some people do not want to hear about technical necessity, but it is entirely possible. Digital files can be easily corrupted (how many problems have you had with your own files?) and they may need to go back and fix some things.
Just a question. Has anyone heard what this does to the opening of the theme park? Oh wait, maybe that’s the reason they changed it. Hmm, opening a theme park with the opening of the movie would seem like a very smart way to bring people to the park.
I would guess that there is something to this idea even if the park still needs some work, ie some exhibits are not available until release of the last two movies.
WB are greedy @#$&*^$.... it doesnt matter that 5 times now they have dominated the christmas season and made millions. The sad thing is even I will go to the movies when it comes out instead of telling them to stuff it. cripes potter has almost become a “Christmas Tradition” . Thanks Time-Warner… you have again ruined a good thing. If not for the bad karma kick in the pants I would wish bad things on you !