What’s in a Date?

Aug 17, 2008

Posted by: John Admin

Uncategorized

So I had a completely different topic that I wanted to discuss this week, but with the flurry of news regarding the new release date of the Half-Blood Prince film I figured I should chime in on this one briefly with my opinions

There are quite a few reasons why WB would push the release date back 6 months. Their official position, that the writer’s strike “impacted the readiness of scripts for other films–changing the competitive landscape for 2009…” is certainly true. As someone living in and working in Los Angeles, I can definitely attest to the huge impact the writer’s strike had. Los Angeles lost millions of dollars a day, and the world as a whole suffered as TV shows went off the air, films were delayed, etc. So there is definitely some truth to their position on this. There are most likely a dozen or more films that WB was working on that had their schedules dramatically altered by the strike.

What a lot of people don’t realize is that studios look very closely at what movies are being released over the course of a year by all their competitors. They look at what TV shows are doing well, and not so well. What books are popular, what music is popular, where people are traveling, and a million and one other things to determine what movies they expect will do well at what times throughout the year. They don’t just pick a release date out of a hat or ask the filmmaker “when do you think you’re going to be done?” No my friends, release dates are set with very specific parameters and intentions behind them. The changes that took place in the film market this year because of the writer’s strike most certainly affected some of WB’s other films. The reality is, they could release Harry Potter on its initial date and it would of course do excellently. What they are attempting to do by pushing it back, is to provide more opportunities for OTHER films to succeed.

Now lets talk about the other, unannounced, reason for this push. Many of the gossip blogs and tabloids are all pointing their fingers to Daniel Radcliffe’s Equus schedule. Now I’m not one to read the gossip columns (luckily my girlfriend is), but there is without doubt some truth to this. I’m not going to lame the blame for this at Daniel’s feet, so please don’t take it that way. But the reality of the fact is, his performance schedule for Equus would directly impact his necessary press obligations for Half-Blood Prince. Certainly he could find a way to try and do both, but as a result, both Equus and Half-Blood Prince would suffer. It does seem highly likely that this had a major impact in WBs decision to push back the release date of the film.

There could (and probably are) a dozen other factors contributing to this change that we don’t know about. Everything from technical problems encountered during post production (regardless of Alan Horn saying they would have finished on time), to the realization that they need to shoot some pickups. At this point, we just have to wait and see how the studio plans on making this up to their devoted fans, as they have announced they will do.

I’m as upset as everyone about this change, but in the end, I understand how the studios work, and so I know its probably for the best. So just be patient and lets see what else WB has to tell us in the weeks and months to come.





The Leaky Cauldron is not associated with J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., or any of the individuals or companies associated with producing and publishing Harry Potter books and films.