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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Pushed to July 2009!

by Alex Billington
August 14, 2008

This is definitely an interesting bit of news. Warner Brothers has delayed the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from Thanksgiving this year until July 17th next summer! The November 21st release date this year seemed like the perfect spot and there's no reason that it should've been moved. This might have something to do with the recent overflow of films at Warners. Or this might have to do with Warners' lack of a major summer film for 2009 so they're putting Harry Potter in the coveted Dark Knight slot. A mid-July release has obviously been proven successful and the film has a dark focus on Voldemort as the villain just like the Joker. Smart move? I really don't think so.

I was actually really looking forward to seeing this in November. It's quite unfortunate that we'll now have to wait another entire year, but I guess Warner Brothers is trying to capitalize on that $500 million mid-July date. Last year when Order of the Phoenix came out in July, it just didn't feel the same. Harry Potter has and will always be a November movie. I'm quite let down by this decision, but there's not much we can do besides wait. Here is Warner Brothers' COO Alan Horn's statement on the move: "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."

Filed under Movie News

From around the web:

Icarus

Uh oh... is this good news or bad news? Looks like we'll have to be a bit more patient after all.
bjdgames

What!?!? Is this real!?! A whole year!?!?!?!? WHAT!?!?!?!?!? ???????????????????
Emma

Words fail me. Well, polite words, anyway. I can think of plenty of swear words.
xpgeek

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Can't say anything else without cursing.
http://www.badtaste.it andrea

this is so dumb, they're making fun of all HP fans. Bah!
bjdgames

this isn't a joke... i don't think... confirm the story at http://www.hpana.com/news.20576.html (which is a hp fan site so it wouldn't make sense for them to be joking around) however, http://www.harrypotter.com still says nov 21... i don't know who to trust!!!
Sam

This is complete bullshit. Fuck WB, fuck them up their stupid asses.
Leland Rogers

Fuck that.
Rick

Here's hoping it somehow leaks on the torrent sites
Leland Rogers

http://www.petitiononline.com/hbpfrela/petition.html
john

this is goddamn ridiculous..... everybody's cursing because that's total bullshit. what the fuck is going on at w.b.?
sean

WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO HARRY POTTER FAN IS GOING TO LIKE THIS! THIS IS FUCKING STUPID! THE WRITERS STRIKE............... that is a excuse..... can they do that so late into it??? is it possible to come back to november?
http://truthoncinema.com Dan

This is a huge disappointment for WB and for Harry Potter. I guess that gives me more time after all to finally finish all of the books.
Bailey

WHAT!? But we were so close! I'm pissed.
Steven

Actually, it's not a whole year...just about 9 months difference...could be worse, they could push it back to Nov. 2009...
Matthew

It's not 9 months it's 11 months!! It's is basically a year. This fucking sucks! I hope everyone @ WB dies and rots in hell. Then they all come back to life and then we do it all over again.
Keith

This is horrible news. Does Warner Bros think this is going to make fans happy? All its doing is pissing off its fan base. That includes me, so fuck off Warner Bros, you ruined my day. If you agree, sign the petition that #9 posted: http://www.petitiononline.com/hbpfrela/petition.html
LeeMan

OMFG!!! fuck fuck fuck fuck!!! i don't even care about the movie that much, it's hust the fact that everyone said that 2008 doesn't match up to the juggernaut that was 2007. harry potter supposed to be the answer, it was supposed to prove everyone wrong. now what do we got, a shit load of a holiday season with no blockbusters like last year, this is real bullshit! 2007 had 11 200+M films, this year we only have six and there's no movie comn out in nov or dec that can break the 200M mark. just when you think the underdog is gonna prevail, this dumb shit happens!!
http://www.skonmovies.com/ Sean Kelly

I'm going to say that this sucks without resorting to four-letter words. This sucks.
Albus

That sucks. Their big ideas are of course not four our sake. I was looking forward to see this, because now like all Harry Potter fans I am just stuck with the movie since the book serie is completed. I hope they can't get what they want with this smart(!) move.
http://www.levelgame.net Chris W.

Damn, I was looking forward to November...so much happened in this book, and I thought it would make for an interesting movie. So much for that
Carlos

WHAT THE FUCK, WB!?!? The one time Im actually startin to get into HP, and they pull this bullshit move?? ITS COMPLETLEY GHEY!!11!1!!1!1!1 ;P
http://the-greater-truth.blogspot.com/ Homero

A petition will do nothing. Here's the weird part guys, the movie will be released, most likely, towards the beginning/middle of April and they're still planning on releasing HP: The Deathly Hallows Part 1 on November 9th of the same year...two HP movies in one year seems a little excessive...
Steve

Fuck Alan Horn and his greedy ass. Haven't they made enough $$ off this franchise already? I say we boycott this one!!!!
Buttons

i wasn't going to see it anyway lawl
BRBomber

who cares? this movie is gonna suck just like order of the phoenix. why the heck do we get so hyped up over these movies when they will come close to surpassing the greatness of the books or even doing them justice... but maybe this one can alter the series....
Joshua

More unnecessary Dark Knight references. Why am I not surprised?...
Lolly

.......... . YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! WHY!?!?! Gr.... The end
dave13

ahahaha. HP fans amuse me. Now its even less likely that i'll see this movie. thats if i was going at all. Order of the phoenix was a horrible movie.
janet

I was absolutely shocked by this announcement. I can understand their reasoning but this is something that should have been decided and announced much earlier then this. Fans must be going crazy. HP makes tons of money no matter if it's a holiday movie or a summer movie so I still think their decision is a little off. They should have let it alone.
sean

is number 9s post safe???? sorry really want to do it, but am a little afraid
http://movieguyreviews4u.blogspot.com Ryan

Just read this. Fucking ridiculous! WHY?! HP is a November movie like Alex said and I agree. It will probably make more $ with the weekdays and the already crowded Holiday frame, but still. This makes it WAY to close with the Deathly Hallows 1 and 2.
k8

This is the worst decision ever. It is a PR nightmare. Tell WB what you think. Go to WB company web site, click on “feedback” at the bottom of the page and let them have it! They stink!
thecomedian217

Guess that means Deathly Hallows is delayed too, they will bring lots of excuses but no matter what they say a dealy isnt going to look good and a lot of people are going to be very anoied as HBP was by far the best book. One Potter film I was actually looking forward to.sigh.
Mike

eff that.
shana

this is so fucking ridiculous. they tell us the release date, give us a trailer, and then say, "nevermind, we'll make more money off of it by going back on our word and doing it over half a year later!" there is no fucking excuse for this. it's absolute bullshit.
David

It may be a bad decision for the public, but all the people bitching about it will still wait and go see it next summer. It will be very hard for harry potter to not be successful so it's hard to fault the studio's motive to make more money off of a sure thing. Coupled with the theme park, Harry potter will still be very present in the minds of the public for a while, even with the series over. Plus I never finished half-blood prince(even though I read the 7th book), so this will give me some time.
Reece

this is super lame, i wonder if they know how utterly distraught they are leaving there fans, they better have to a damn good reason for this because it is crazy, another key reason why this sucks is because the other movies (which is another big upsetter) back even further, are we lookin to wrap the series up in 2015 or wut
Reece

their*** dammit
Kendall

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? A bunch of my friends and I were all planning to take a train into Chicago and seeing it in IMAX and then making the train the Hogwart Express. And now we won't be able to because half of us will be in different states for college next year. Seriously, what in the name of Merlin's most baggy Y fronts are they thinking? Ugh bullshit to WarnerBros.
Vin

thats fuckin bullshit, i almost wanna boycott this movie, gah all they care about is fuckin money, this movie is obviously not gonna be as good as the dark knight and their really reachin if it thinks it will.
tyler Ford

bull shit. These movies suck in the summer, they don't fit at all, it's the same stupid mistake disney made with Narnia, even though the movie was terrible. This really does make me want avoid the movie entirely. It is complete crap and right after the trailer release.
Iron Man Fan

I'm kinda happy because the last one sucked. I really am not looking forward to this and I'm happy I have more time away from this franchise.
Kendall

PS. I should mention that I dyed my hair white two days ago because I was planning on going as Luna Lovegood. I was just going to keep touching it up and growing it out until then. Sonowwhat?
Keely

first off.. why are people writing that they are happy? stop pretending like you don't love Harry Potter cause if you didn't then why would you be wasting your time to reply to this blog?? (dumb ass) and second of all i say we boycott!! WB can suck it, i hate money grubbing muggles
ariel

PSH! LOL they're just afraid that TWILIGHT will pwn them P even stephenie meyer herself said that Edward would win a fight against the infamous Harry Potter! haha! but in all seriousness.. it woulda been nice to watch harry potter and then twilight to compare.. well not much comparison but i just like my two favourite fantasy books turned into movies to be close to eachother xD thats probably one reason though, because they don't want a comparison to Twilight.. maybe?
Eden

NOOOOOOOOO
SimplyMortal

I kind of agree with the comment above me. I wanted to see wish fanbase would come out stronger. I would vote Twilight. But this news is kind of saddening.
Jeep-Fu

That is effing insane! Are they also going to push back the production of the next movie(s)? At this rate you're going to have (pratically) 30 year olds playing 17 year olds? Now that they have all this extra time this movie better be perfect, because they're going to have all the time in the world to work on the effects, editing and everything else (hell they could even re film scenes they didn't like). WTF is going through the people at WB's heads?!?
Balathazar

First off, it isn't a year difference (Nov-July) it is 8 months. I know some of you were saying a year "from now" to see it but were forgetting you would still wait 4 months anyway. Second, Harry Potter movies belong in the winter. That is where they started and where they do the best. Third, it has been stated that the dates of the last 2 movies have not changed from the November 2010 and summer 2011 dates. They are shooting both movies during the 2009 year. As for the supposed reasoning behind this move, it is probably likely. The writers were on strike for quite a while and it is just now reaching the end line of the production process. Less "good" movies for a little while. So one company is trying to stretch out the dead time by delaying a movie they know that many want to see. The timing is just bad, it is due in just 4 months and trailers (hype) have started on it already. If they would have announced this move 6 months ago it wouldn't have been as bad.
WB EXEC

THe real reason for the move is the success of The Dark Knight. It made more money then they hoped for and next summer they only have one potential blockbuster (terminator). So the real reason was to make next year's revenues comparable to this years. TDK and HBP both will take in over 700 M world wide this year and when they report earnings next year they will be down signifigantly, so in order to appease shareholders they are moving it to next summer so the revenue stream does not look like the it is decreasing. The business part aside, I do agree that the harry potter movies are fall releases. They just do not feel the same in the summer.
http://blogger.xs4all.nl/vads Vitor

Thank God, I hope they will delay it until 2408!
Emily

This is outragous... if WB thinks there doing this to make more money Change it Back!!! But i have to admit if there are doing this because they are not done edditing or with the Special effects get it out ASAP i dont want a half ass Harry Potter Film!
julian

bullshit
Kevin P 'Aitron'

They wanna support film piracy? Go on WB. Harry Potter in Summer is like swimming in the sea in Winter.
Ajax

I would not mind the WB moving HP6 if they gave me a real reason. What the h*ll did the studio execs mean with that reason stated above?
emma

this is downright wrong damn money grubbers you know who i feel bad for is all the sick children in hospitals or the people who have been diagnosed with an illness that will not allow them to live long enough to see another year and those particular people might have only this movie to look forward to its just sad and selfish of warner brothers i am so pissed about this and i hope they see all the negativity that this causes amongst fans im just at a loss of words this really sucks.......................
Emma

it's gonna be summer in november here in the southern hemisphere, but obviously the world revolves around america so who cares about the rest of the world!!! it's bullshit!!!! if they say there isn't enough competition this november wouldn't that mean more people would see it??
Emma

there not gonna more money now that they've pissed off all their fans!!
jenny

i hope no one goes to see it in july and just wait for the dvd and then warner bros plan will backfire on them the world has been waiting very patiently for this movie and now its ruined emma made a good point about the poor people who wont live to see it well i guess money is all powerful nowadays who cares about the fans even though were the ones supporting warner bros i hope they change their minds about the date change their making a huge mistake its all sickening
furious with Warner Bros.

I am so fed up with Warner Bros. We have been waiting for this movie since the release of the Order of the Pheonix, which was over a year ago, and now we are going to have to wait yet another year for the Half Blood Prince. I don't get how they think they will make money, when Thanksgiving weekend is also one of the biggest times of the year for movie releases. I am proudly and most definately joining the boycotts against Warner Bros!
Ken

You have got to be kidding!!! This is rediculus to abuse the fans like this. The same people will go to the film in November as July at least before they did this. The fan base is what it is. If they want(not need) more money Ill pay double just to watch this film in November but I might just wait for DVD if they push it to July. I would do that just so they do not get the money they want. I'm 37 years old and I am a Harry Potter fan, I admit it!!!!!
http://carlosmonge.blogspot.com/ FAT

This is SAD NEWS... SHAME on you WB!!!
amira

BOO!!! This sucks, I mean AUSTRALIA WONT SEE IT TILL NEXT YEAR!! THEN.................ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH.
http://wheresmyblank.com Nichole

Harry Potter needs to be seen in November. This is truly a bullshit move by WB. How dare they release that awesome trailer, get everyone excited, and then pull the plug. FU to who ever made that final decision. I will sign every petition out there to right this wrong for Harry Potter fans around the world.
Phoenix1946

Well, WB. As far as I am concerned the Harry Potter movies ended with the severly butchered "Order of the Phoenix". I will not waste my precious money on anything with a money trail back to WB. When I want to "see" Harry Potter, I will go back to the books. Jo Rowling paints my mind with much better pictures than "Order of the Phoenix" on Bulemia. From the comments left on Harry Potter fansites, you can release the remaining films whenever you want and you need not spend anything for advertising since your films and licensed products are ON BOYCOTT!
Twilightluvr

when i first found out about this, i was pissed!! i mean, you can't do that to people who are huge fans!! especially 3 months before it comes out...it's ridiculous. However, i am no longer mad because i just also recently found out that the release of Twilight will now be showing on November 21st. Since i am HUGE fan of Twilight, this is good news to me and for any other Twilight fans out there. So now it's not possible for Harry Potter to take back its spot since it's now filled. Now Harry Potter fans are probably really mad at this piece of info because the only book that Harry Potter has ever had competition with is Twilight (i think Twilight is more popular now. it made history the day Breaking Dawn came out as the most books ever sold on the release date one of which is mine). So before all you HP fans start getting really pissed, just know that Stephenie Meyer and Catherine Hardwicke (Director) are not looking for competition. The move of HP had nothing to do with Twilight whatsoever. It's nothing Twilight-related. It's just a coincidence that the movie that took HP's place was Twilight. This is all WB decision. If you don't believe me, go to Stephenie's site http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/ Stephenie Meyer doesn't like the competition between Twilight and HP. She never wanted there to be any. So all you HP fans, don't be cruel to Twilight. All they did was take the empty spot that WB left wide open for anyone to take. It just so happens that Summit Entertainment jumped up first to claim it. The one thing that is riduclous is that it got pushed back a whole 8 months!! That's crazy and not fair. If WB do end up releasing the movie earlier again, i don't think they can because Twilight already took it, but they could take Twilight's old spot (December 12th). Or, if Summit Entertainment was nice enough, they could give the spot back. In my opinion, i'm mad and extremely happy. i love HP and i was excited for the movie, but i'm an obsessed Twilight fan so this is all good news to me and to any other Twilight fans out there. So, sorry to all HP fans, but i am glad that the movie moved because it gave the spot to Twilight. But i am not glad that it got moved that far. Overall, dumb move by WB.
jessica

this sucks!! you cant just push harry potter away for another year and expect people to wait on it!! you have no idea what ur doing!!!
jessica

u guys shouldent care about the $ !! you should understand that harry potter is going to be good!!people were waiting on this and u guys ruend it!!!
KIM

I too am disappointed that the movie is going to be released 8 months later. HOWEVER, if the movie will end up better why is everyone complaining? If you can't handle the wait, suck it up and read the books again in your spare time! Yikes, talk about immature, its just a movie, your lives won't be traumatized with a later release date.
Joey

Well, I can't say I'm please about this, but maybe thay are going to put loads of extra work into it to make sure that the screenwriters haven't changed anything, and the story is told in exactly the way that JK wrote it, unlike the other 5 films!! Ok, they're not. So we have to wait for it...big deal. we all know the truth anyway-the screenplay was written by someone who got the Cliff's Notes version of the book and then took the storyline in their own direction, romoved some great scenes, added things that totally were not in the book, and just plain made stuff up. All of these films have bben crap. This one will be crap as well. What's the BFD about having to wait another 11 months to see a crap film?? Read all the books again, and live the story in your mind.
Philip

After more than a week, my mind still cannot comprehend the full impact of WB's decision. This upsetting news has markedly lowered my faith in people. Extremely disappointing.
NinjaMidget

You know, I love the Harry Potter movies. They are really entertaining and very well done movies. But for so many people to get their panties in a twist over a movie with a delayed release date is just ridiculous. I can understand being upset..hell, it looks like it's going to be a great movie, but when I read all these posts from you whiners, all I hear is; "WAAAAAAAAAA! WAAAAAAAAAAA! WAAAAAAAAAAA!" Seriously, if a movie being delayed is enough to illicit the kinds of responses I'm seeing here, then you are either a child, in which case you should learn a lesson from this..sometimes you don't get what your want, or you have some serious mental issues and should seek help before you become a danger to yourself or others.
jonn

warner brothers trying to copy the dark night what a joke
Rin

I just found out about this. I am bummed. I would rather it took place during the school year, so I could go out to see it with my buddies.
TW Duke

8 more months for it to leak to the p2p world. dumb move on WB's part. Odds on this movie will be on the boards by March.
TT

Hee, Twilight took Harry Potters place... woopsie!
Cody

Ahh... I love the Harry Potter movies, and I cant believe we have to wait till July! This is Crazy. More people go to the movies in the Winter time than mid-summer. Therefore they should run it towards Christmas time!! Does anyone think they will move the date any earlier??
Fy

NinjaMidget: Are you really that closed minded? Alright, we HP-fans baww a fucking alot about this, but can't you really understand WHY? It's not because we're spoilt brats and are used to get whatever we want whenever we want, but because we are FANS. We don't only watch the half-assed movies, we have READ the BOOKS, more than often multiple times! We've also been waiting for this movie, counting down days, planning the day, and then Warner Bros decide to move the movie, which would be ok if it were a week, a month or two, but EIGHT months?!?! That's almost a year! It's mental, and they did it, for what? MONEY. OF COURSE we are pissed! Of course we're gonna baww like small brats. I can't see why you try to act like a mum and give us all the "You don't always get want you want"-lesson because it's not what it's about.
Sarah

Darn. I was so upset when this was announced. I rushed to play catch up to book 6 and re-read on the other HP books for nothing. (: Was really looking forward to seeing it too. I'm also a tad perplexed and somewhat disappointed in the decision to make Deathly Hallows into two films. There is a lot of filler and rubbish that can be dropped on the cutting floor in my humble opinion. Camping in a tent for a year comes to mind. I could see making it a 3 hour film perhaps but not two films. Kind of weird. Seems like just another money making scheme like the delay in this film. Let's hope the movies are as good as the past few have been. They seem to get better with each release. Snape saves the day! I knew it! lol
phoebe

I want to see harry potter for my birthday but these stupid websites aren't giving me a time table and i'm defenately not going to the ODEON they charge £10 and greenwich picture house website is the crapest website i've ever seen.
phoebe

I wish some mirical happened and harry potter sent me an email saying he has found a cinema in greenwich that shows hp6 after 3:30