Harry Potter fans are not happy today. The release date of the upcoming film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has been pushed back to next summer. It was originally supposed to premiere this December.
In a surprise move, Warner Bros. has moved the release date of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" from Nov. 21 to July 17. Warners president Alan Horn blamed last winter's 100-day WGA strike in large part for the shift, suggesting all the major studios have been hurt in the development of new tentpole films for next summer.
"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," Horn said. "We agreed the best strategy was to move 'Half-Blood Prince' to July, where it perfectly fills the gap for a major tentpole release for midsummer."
The move also reflects execs' belief that the "summer season is an ideal window for a family tentpole release," he said.
We are not happy with this at all, although we understand the reasoning behind it. But to make us wait until next summer seems unusually cruel. And blaming it on the writers' strike is just irritating.
