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Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Delayed


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Sad but not surprising. Their marketing strategy or lack there of pointed to signs of a major studio decision on the horizon and this is it. I know that their marketing department will be kicked in to the highest gear for that movie. One side of me wants to kill them all but the part of me that understands the business appreciates the decision.

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Reaction #1 (to the thread title and who started it): It's not April 1! :blink:

Reaction #2: What Henry said.

So that's both Potter and Star Trek moving from this Christmastime to next summer. But if they're looking purely at BO, Potter films have always grossed better at Christmas than the summer.

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I'm the least excited about this one than any of the others, including Hallows. The book is just one giant setup for the big plunge, albeit with a tragic end.

Which is a pity, because the teaser makes it look far more serious and grown up than any of the previous movies.

And I agree with Nick - my memories of the first film at least are very Xmassy. They'd never have released that during the summer.

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Guest macrea

An already overcrowded summer just got more so. Weren't they paying attention to what happened with the second Narnia film? A franchise with a holiday vibe that backfired as a summer release.

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Wow, that really sucks.

Two years?! This is the longest span yet between two Potter films.

I was looking forward to the winter release since the last one was in the summer. However, the Potter films that I consider to be the best were both released in the summer, so maybe it's a good sign.

~Sturgis, who knows it really has no bearing on the quality of the film... but is overall still irked

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It wasn't close enough to November for me to get really really excited for HBP anyways--I don't mind the change too much.

Having said that, I think it'll be a great film.

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Ugh, that new Transformers is next summer, isn't it? Well, I'm not getting drug to this one, the chances of getting blown away by another Cloverfield-like trailer are not good.

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I thought I posted on this thread earlier. Guess not. I really hope the extra time allows Hooper to take his music to the next level. He needs to if he wants to follow John Williams.

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Well considering that awful teaser...I'm kind of glad.

Mind you the concept for the teaser was great, the material from the film and execution of the trailer looked like a steaming pile of...

At the same time, WB shot itself in the foot, and we all just witnessed it first hand. Mark my words, with the books no longer providing momentum, a long 2 year film-to-film gap, and a ridiculous summer line up, this will be the weakest grossing Potter.

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I love hearing sources,

if there is a bigger lie on the internet its when people say my sources.

they always end up false.

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An already overcrowded summer just got more so. Weren't they paying attention to what happened with the second Narnia film? A franchise with a holiday vibe that backfired as a summer release.

I don't think you were paying attention. Order of the Phoenix did spectacular business in the summer months, so the comparison to Prince Caspian is just kinda pointless. There's no reason on Earth to suspect that Half-Blood Prince won't do well; this is a strong, well-loved franchise and will probably continue to be until the series is done.

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There are few who can.

Then again, from what I remember, OOTP was more inspired than KOTCS. Less accomplished, technically, but perhaps ultimately more interesting. I don't have it yet, though, and I've only seen the film twice, so those are vague memories. ;)

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It should be pointed out the film is being moved for $$$ reasons and not problems with the film. The film is virtually done. Next summer will once again be a summer of sequels, but it doesn't appear to be shaping up as even close to this one.

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Yeah I don't know why people are saying this is a strictly winter franchise. It was at first, but since PoA it has varied, and now it's split directly in half between summer and winter releases, and if DH stays on schedule, it will remain so (winter '10, summer '11), although that's a little weird since technically those last two are same movie.

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yeah it will get the back to the future 2 and 3 treatment, sort of. Released 6 months apart

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It should be pointed out the film is being moved for $$$ reasons and not problems with the film. The film is virtually done. Next summer will once again be a summer of sequels, but it doesn't appear to be shaping up as even close to this one.

And how do you know the film is 'virtually done'?

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principle photography was finished on it I believe, they are prepping the effects, and the score is to be recorded next month I beleive

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There basically admitting there moving it for $$$ potential maximum profit reasons .If it was a movie I was really looking forward to I'd be pissed off.

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There basically admitting there moving it for $$$ potential maximum profit reasons .If it was a movie I was really looking forward to I'd be pissed off.

So much money is spent making and marketing movies like this one that Warner would have to be a pack of slobbering fools not to place it where it had the chance of making the most money. In fact, it would be financially irresponsible to do anything else.

My fear is that there is something else going on here that the studio isn't owning up to. It is a major financial decision to do something like this, and it's typically not done to such a high-profile movie only three months in advance. I doubt that it's cause for Potter fans to panic, or even worry . . . but it is odd.

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There basically admitting there moving it for $$$ potential maximum profit reasons .If it was a movie I was really looking forward to I'd be pissed off.

So much money is spent making and marketing movies like this one that Warner would have to be a pack of slobbering fools not to place it where it had the chance of making the most money. In fact, it would be financially irresponsible to do anything else.

My fear is that there is something else going on here that the studio isn't owning up to. It is a major financial decision to do something like this, and it's typically not done to such a high-profile movie only three months in advance. I doubt that it's cause for Potter fans to panic, or even worry . . . but it is odd.

I totally agree. While the presented reason does seem legitimate this would mean that they literally made the decision yesterday which would be unbelievable. A financial move like this had to have gone through dozens of people to be even put on the table. Consider the new Entertainment Weekly cover that features Harry Potter as a fall release (from what i read EW is pissed by the lack of communication from a sister company) also consider that trailer released a couple of weeks ago features a november date and that same trailer will be in theaters today with Star Wars. So am I supposed to believe that the Warner exec woke up on Thursday and went let's change the date of hp and it was green lit for a mid day press release. Highly highly highly doubt it. Like I said before, this decision was long in the making. Three months to a Harry Potter film we should be over run with images and on our second trailer by now. Yet we don't have a poster to even look at. All this seems extremely worrying up until yesterday when it all made sense.

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Despite what Joey says, I still think the film was presented to WB executives and it was so bad, their knee jerk reaction was to push its release date back to further work on it.

Sitting on it for seven months just to make TDK money? Yeah right, not believing their damage control lies.

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Despite what Joey says, I still think the film was presented to WB executives and it was so bad, their knee jerk reaction was to push its release date back to further work on it.

Sitting on it for seven months just to make TDK money? Yeah right, not believing their damage control lies.

where are you getting this sh!t. The release is delayed, the movie isn't being reshot, most of the post production is done.

it might be just they're telling the truth, people do that sometimes you know.

sounds like the same Titanic talk, or the new Star Trek talk.

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Despite what Joey says, I still think the film was presented to WB executives and it was so bad, their knee jerk reaction was to push its release date back to further work on it.

Sitting on it for seven months just to make TDK money? Yeah right, not believing their damage control lies.

where are you getting this sh!t. The release is delayed, the movie isn't being reshot, most of the post production is done.

it might be just they're telling the truth, people do that sometimes you know.

sounds like the same Titanic talk, or the new Star Trek talk.

Could be however that test audiences reacted negatively.

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Could be however that test audiences reacted negatively.

When that happens, they don't give it a juicy summer release date. Harry Potter is a cash cow, they are just sticking it where they think it will make the most money.

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Could be however that test audiences reacted negatively.

When that happens, they don't give it a juicy summer release date. Harry Potter is a cash cow, they are just sticking it where they think it will make the most money.

Yes,but maybe they are making adjustments for which they need time.

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I think that's most likely, and therefore they need to move it to the next 'cash season', i.e. summer.

Unfortunately, a studio doesn't just decide to move its cash cow 8 months back, especially considering ticket sales for the said cow have historically been best in the holiday seasons, to make minute changes.

The simple fact of the matter is that the film is largely unfinished, and I have confirmation from friends working on visual effects for the film.

After Disney's At World's End fiasco, which made it one of the most uneconomic films of 2007, every studio, including Disney has remodeled their blockbuster delivery routine. It used to be, if your big name movie isn't looking like it'll be finished on time, you threw cash at it and hired hundreds of new hands and companies to aid in finishing it, and it would make more than its inflated budget back. Now days with even more fierce competition, and increasingly raised standards by the public, what you end up with is At World's End...a film that barely made back its doubled production budget, let alone marketing budget domestically.

WB has actively been seeking to cut back on the Harry Potter budgets to increase the profitability of their films. At the same time the Harry Potter films have been growing even bigger and more complex in their technical requirements. Couple that with the shockwaves of the writers strike and the money WB has lost on sunken ships from the said strike, and the fact that they are avoiding overinflating the budget to meet November 21 certainly seems to be the primary reason for the delay.

Certainly, WB can deliver on time, but Disney's 2007 disaster has made it clear that it is smarter to delay blockbuster's to curtail the budget in today's highly competetive environment.

In my opinion however, this will end up hurting the performance of the film, but clearly not as much as running a $200 million dollar bill and the movie only making $280M.

There was no where but down for the box office performance of Half-Blood Prince, with the end of the book series, so WB took what seems to be the most profitable route. I would not expect this film to crack $300 million though. The competition looks tough.

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I feel this is a move that is going to end up biting WB in the rear. Although, the die hard Potter fans are always going to be into the movies and still re-read the books I feel now that the books have ended the Potter franchise is slowly coming to an end. There is a book series that just ended called 'Twilight' (not sure if you guys are familiar with it) with a movie of the first book coming out in December. This series is considered to be the Harry Potter for teens. It recently gained a large popularity especially among Harry Potter fans. All the Potter fans that I know are into it (including myself) and now that my age group is in the mid to late teens, the Twilight series is more interesting.

The reason its going to bite WB in the rear is it being now that the date of HBP is pushed back, God only knows when DH is going to be released and by that time the Potter franchise will be coming to a slow death.

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