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.”
I HATE WB s
I MEAN ,CMON MAN ITS HBP !!!!!!
ITS NOT SOME KIND OF A STUPID DUMB DISNEY MOVIE HUH????
WEVE BEEN WATIN FOR THIS FOR SUCH A LONG TIME AND WHAT THEY DO IS THIS?????
( I THINK THEY JUST CARE ABOUT THE MONEY AND NOT US , THE PEOPLEWHO MAKE THEM SUCCESSSSSSSFUL!!!!!!!!)
JKR SHOULD DO SOMETHIN ABOUT THIS BECAUS SHE KEEPS HER PROMISES!!!!!!!!!!
I posted something similiar to this on the original article and I think it is even more relevant here.
Listen people. WB does not care about the opening weekend and your threats to boycott. There are 2 reasons for this.
1. There is no way on the face of this earth that the Potter Fandom is going to miss out on seeing it. Even if you don’t see it on opening weekend or don’t see it 5 times on the opening day. It doesn’t matter to them. You are still going to go see it at some point and you will watch it 7 times before they pull it from the line up three and a half months before the DVD release. So if you go see it WB still gets their money. A boycott of opening weekend means nothing. We think it does because we publicize opening weekend numbers. They don’t care about opening weekend numbers. They care about numbers period. They don’t get any more money for an opening weekend viewing as they would for a three week out viewing.
2. The fans do not make decisions on what movie is or when it comes out. It is the same with all corporate paraded art. There is no say by the consumer, because the demand is contant. You think the demand has gone down in anyway for HP because of this announcement. Not a chance. There will always be a demand for Harry. There will never be enough of us who are loyal enough to say forget it, I will just buy it on DVD.
We want to see the movie. It is obvious by the outcry of fans in the last four days. We will wait for it. In the end there is nothing that we can do.
One last thought. For everyone that believes the statements about KARMA taking care of this. There is no KARMA for WB. They do what they wish and for decades that have done what they wish and it neve bites them. Why? Because KARMA is for the poor and independent. Corporate America does not face KARMA. Corporate America is like a rapper with 100,000,000 bucks, they can buy there way out of anything.
One last last thought. WB also doesn’t care because whatever they spent on the last ten movies that have been produced by the studio, Dark Knight made them the money back, plus interest. WB has not lost money on a movie since its inception. They don’t care about us. They care about the bottom line.
Deal with it and move on. Go see the movie in July. Opening weekend or not, it doens’t matter. Enjoy the movie, don’t let anything take that from you. You waited this long, you can wait a little longer.
I think Snapealicious maybe onto something with the publicity thing. It is fishy that Dan, Rupert, Emma, and JKR haven’t commented yet. On a different note, we need to tell FoxNews it wasn’t Dan’s fault.
FACT: The Film is ready to go. It might need test screenings, but for all intents and purposes, it is ready for Worldwide release in November.
WB has pretty much admitted that this delay is due to MONEY: Making MORE money in July rather than November.
They are doing this because they KNOW how LOYAL the HP fans are. Please, lets do something about it, even if it doesn’t result in moving the film to November:
FYI:
New Line Cinema is part of Warner Brothers Cinema
Reprise Records is part of Warner Brothers Music.
BOYCOTT EVERYTHING AOL/TIME/WARNER!
I’ll be looking for more WB affiliates to post. And by the way, if a couple of hundred fans were to show up at the WB studio. Media Coverage would be almost guaranteed, and at worst there’d be media coverage of the fan’s outrage, at best we could make WB look like the Grinch who stole HP, and maybe even walk away with HP promotional goodies. I’m serious! Fan outrage has brought back canceled TV series before. If all of you are as outraged as we all seem, then let’s show Warner that we mean business!
chocolateisnotforbreakfast:
If that is the reason, they sure made a hash of selling the message. Like roonwit, I think most people would have been happy if WB had come out and said `We want to make the best movie we possibly can do, and if that takes a little more time, so be it’.
Instead, they literally said `This movie’s great, you’ll all love it, but for the sole reason that we want to make more money, we’re not going to let you see it yet.’ The message? Not `You are all smart enough to realise that a good movie takes time, but `You are all so dumb that you’re not going to complain if we put profits ahead of art’.
Either way, their PR has been shocking. And it seems like a pretty big and rash decision to make so hurriedly.
I guess one thing is for sure – we’ll learn how complete the film is some time in the next few months because, if it IS basically in a state of completion, there is no way that it’s not going to get leaked onto the internet …
The more I learn about this, the angrier I’ve become. WB should have been honest from the get go.
Alan Horn was the WRONG Person to be the Spokesman for WB. You do not brag about getting a sneak peak at a movie the Public, especially Children have been desparate to see. He must have read the Idiot’s Guide to Public Relations and how to tick off your Fans 101. You don’t spit on someone then say “I love you”.
If anything, they’ve turned a LOT of us into Anti-WB people. I just hope this doesn’t have a ripple effect on shows like ER who has one of the most talented cast of people on television.
The thing is, they wouldn’t do this if they were a small, one item company and relied on Customer Satisfaction to keep in business. All it takes is one negative experience and you lose millions. Unfortunately WB is so big they’ll never feel the affect of their decision.
We can stop WB. They have pulled a Scrooge. This heinous act cannot be unpunished. If any of you truly love Harry Potter, you will do something about it.
I agree with the general consensus that this date change totally blows!!!
If WB was so concerned about how the writers strike was going to affect current productions and whatever other crap they said. Then why, why oh why did they not make a decision months ago to change the release date?????
If they really “care about their fans…. and are going to “pacify” us over the coming months how exactly do they plan on doing this?? They won’t release another trailer until about march or april next year and in the mean time they expect us to settle some pretty pictures?..... I don’t think so!!!!!!
I wonder what they would do they were bombarded with emails and letters from furious fans worldwide telling them what we think of them…. probably nothing but it might make them think twice about doing something this stupid again.
Most hated company in the World right now: Warner Bros!
They should have lied and told us “We are really really sorry, but… unavoidable problem… out of our control…” instead of making fans so irate with their greed for our dollars
Nutshell is completely correct. The fact is they have other movies for november december, but next year they wont. All those movies that were to be released then will not be and therefore leave a gap.
HOWEVER, i still think they have gone about it the wrong way. had they announced this by releasing the trailer with the new date it would have been better. having a trailer saying Nov 21 and then only a couple of weeks later saying july is unfair.
Unfortunately in the end i think it will backfire big time on WB and the fans.
There is a virtually finished film with a whole 11 months til release. Its Harry Potter, and there are pissed off people out there. My bet: The film will be leaked!
"Take this thing for a walk?" he repeated in disgust, staring into one of the boxes. "And where exactly are we supposed to fix the leash? Around the sting, the blasting end, or the sucker?"
I HATE WB s I MEAN ,CMON MAN ITS HBP !!!!!! ITS NOT SOME KIND OF A STUPID DUMB DISNEY MOVIE HUH???? WEVE BEEN WATIN FOR THIS FOR SUCH A LONG TIME AND WHAT THEY DO IS THIS????? ( I THINK THEY JUST CARE ABOUT THE MONEY AND NOT US , THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE THEM SUCCESSSSSSSFUL!!!!!!!!) JKR SHOULD DO SOMETHIN ABOUT THIS BECAUS SHE KEEPS HER PROMISES!!!!!!!!!!