Half Blood Prince Movie Moves to Summer 2009
According to marketwatch.com website, Warner Brothers has announced this afternoon that they are moving the release of “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” to July 17, 2009.
Alan Horn, President and Chief Operating Officer of Warner Brothers said this about the move:
“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.”
We will get you more info as it comes in. This is big news that will sure to disappoint many Potter fans.
UPDATE: One good thing to come out of this: I received this email from the HPEF, the minds behind Harry Potter conventions such as Prophecy, Portus and the upcoming, Azkatraz 2009:
We are in touch with movie theaters within walking distance of the Parc55, the official Azkatraz hotel, and we will definitely be having HBP viewing parties from Friday on.
The IMAX near the hotel – it’s about 3 or 4 blocks away – will not know if they will have the film in IMAX or on regular-sized screens until February or March, but we have reserved an entire theater for the showing at 00:00:01 on July 17, 2009! We are also working to schedule at least one additional showing over the weekend, and perhaps one on Tuesday as well, depending on attendee interest.
Tickets will be available when our registration system goes live in the beginning of next month, and we will have more info about cosplaying, music, and other movie-showing events at Azkatraz shortly.
Be sure to keep checking our website (http://www.hp2009.org) for all the latest updates!!
NICE!
(Hat Tip: AG, friend of DL)
Tags: Azkatraz 2009, Half Blood Prince in 2009, Half Blood Prince Movie, Harry Potter Movie, HPEF, Warner Brothers
August 14th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
This is so deeply upsetting!!!!!
August 14th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Why did they decide to announce this now? It’s less than 100 days from when it was supposed to be released. I can’t believe it!
August 14th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Just The “Tent Polers” Will Be Happy
August 14th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
okay…….so i think that i am going to go and cry my eyes out!!!! THis is so horrible!!!! Warner Brothers will be getting a mean letter from me about this!! Ugh!!!
August 14th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
How horrible!!!
Thank goodness there is the both of you to keep us going!!!!
Podcast ON!
August 14th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
I can’t believe it!!
August 14th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
This sucks big time!! My 16th birthday is right before the release date and I was going to go see it for my party!! Grrr…
At least we know now why it took so long to give us a teaser trailer.
August 14th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
[...] to HP Progs Share and [...]
August 14th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
I think WB has been planning this from the beginning, the teaser trailer wasn’t late it was right on time for a July 09 release!
August 14th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
wow i am so mad. I can’t believe this. it is so stupid that they are moving the date just to get more money. but i guess thats why we just got to see the trailer. i hope they change their mind again.
August 14th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Anyone going to Azkatraz – they’ve already booked one theater for the midnight showing. The silver lining in this is for Azkatraz attendees. Going to HBP on opening night with literally hundreds of the craziest Potter fans with whom we’ll be spending the next three days – fans who really appreciate the books – will be a blast.
August 14th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
I am really frustrated with this but at the same time I understand now why it took so long for the teaser to come out. WB knew for a long time that this was going to happen or they would have put out a teaser sooner than they did. This does seem money driven but it does not matter. WB has disappointed a lot of people. The HP fandom is very upset.
August 14th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Some circles would say WB chickened out in cage match of the year, “Harry Potter vs. Twilight” but can’t say I didn’t see this coming when the trailer was late. Very sad to have to wait.
August 15th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
[...] « Half Blood Prince Movie Moves to Summer 2009 [...]
August 15th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
omg i’m so totally pissed about that. i was so looking foward to some good harry potterness, and with the teaser trailer i was getting all pumped up. and now i have to wait eight more frickin months for it? holy crap. it’s common knowledge that the summer months are better for movies, this isn’t news. how come all of a sudden they decided to do it in the summer now then when the first discussed the release date? with all that the dark knight has grossed you’d think wb would be ok with releasing it in november.
August 15th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
I did not even believe it till I read it here
This is way worse than waiting for the trailer to finally come out, They could have at least not told us how long they were delaying it by. This way we could think there was still hope it would still come out and give us something to guess about while we wait.
August 20th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
[...] of Warner Brothers has issued a statement as a response to fans who expressed dismay about the postponement of the Half Blood Prince movie to July 2009. The press release reads as follows: Many of you have written to me to express your [...]
June 16th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
The movie come out in just less than a month now =) I am okay with them moving the release date back as i was preoccupied with school and now it releases on the day of my b-day =D