Those of you counting the days until November when you can get another Harry Potter fix better break out the DVDs because Warner Bros. has announced they are pushing the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince back from November 21, 2008 to July 17, 2009.
When making the announcement Warner Bros. stated that the reason for the date change was because summer is ideal release window for a family tentpole release and that the writer’s strike left a big gaping hole in their summer release schedule. However, their first reason doesn’t make much sense. The three Harry Potter films that were released in November averaged $916M in worldwide ticket sales while the two that were released in the summer only averaged $866M. While that’s still a ton of money, the difference in the averages is considerable - $50M for each film or about $100M total.
Releasing in the summer just seems crazy to me. If they had kept their November release date they would have had practically no direct competition until Twilight came out on December 12. Instead, they will now be releasing two weeks after Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, one week after Roland Emmerich’s end of the world extravaganza 2012, and on the same day as Will Ferrell’s Land of the Lost. Doesn’t make much sense to me. I’m thinking there must be more to it.
What do you think? Are you mad that you have to wait longer? Would you rather see it in the summer and dedicate your winter to more artsy movies?
Maybe movies do worse after presidential elections, that or its a re-write with whats his name dropping out and Angelina Jolie playing the role of Harriet Potter.
Or maybe they are avoiding Activision Blizzard's World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King release? That's hmm, 10 million people worldwide playing WoW: WotLK instead of watching Harry Potter?
Dunno… speculations
This blows. Eh. Time will fly by and before we all know it, it'll be July.
I think their reason means that they don't have anything ELSE to release next summer because of the strike, so they've done well this year, but need something giant to make money next summer.
Yeah, that makes sense, but $50M is a big price to pay.