Those of you who haven't heard that Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince movie had been released from November 2008 to July 17, 2009.
'Half-Blood Prince' release moved to July 17, 2009
Warner Bros. has just announced that the release date for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
has been pushed back and will be released on July 17, 2009 instead of
this coming November. This news has been confirmed with Warner Bros. by
HPANA.
Alan Horn, President and Chief Operating Officer, Warner Bros. stated:
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.
Jeff Robinov, President of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, confirmed:
The release date change does not alter the production schedule for this or future Harry Potter films. Post-production on Half-Blood Prince was completed on time, and the studio’s release plans for the two-part Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will not be affected by this change. We know Harry Potter
fans are eagerly anticipating seeing the final chapters unfold
onscreen. In fact, the good news for them is that the gap will now be
shortened between Half-Blood Prince and the first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
While producer David Heyman offered:
When Jeff Robinov explained the rationale behind moving the release date of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
to July 2009, it was immediately apparent that this offered us the
potential to reach the widest possible audience. I am extremely proud
of this latest film and of the work of David Yates and our incomparable
cast; I believe we have developed and pushed the series further still.
We are all looking forward to sharing it with Harry Potter fans around the world, even if we have to wait just a bit longer.
UPDATE: The official Potter site has been updated with the new release date.
UPDATE II: We don't normally
do this, but fan reaction to this news is understandably heated (to put
it mildly) and we thought it would be fun to post links to petitions
that will try to convince WB to rethink their decision. (No offense,
but it will have no effect whatsoever except to make them feel bad --
momentarily -- before going back to counting money --Ed., Cheeser.) Feel free to send links to any petitions you find!
by Elizabeth Krum Fri Aug 15, 2008 2:31 am
