Source:Warner Bros. Pictures

August 20, 2008

If you've read the comments on this item, it's not hard to see that "Harry Potter" fans are not too pleased with Warner Bros.' decision to move the nearly-completed Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from November 21 to July 17, 2009.

In that announcement, Warner Bros. President and Chief Operating Officer Alan Horn stated the studio's reasons for moving the film. He said the reasons are twofold: "we know the summer season is an ideal window for a family tent pole release... [and] 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."

It looks like the Warner Bros. Pictures offices were flooded with complaints from the fans, as Horn has now released the following statement to all the fans:

Many of you have written to me to express your disappointment in our moving "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" to Summer 2009.

Please be assured that we share your love for Harry Potter and would certainly never do anything to hurt any of the films. Over the past 10 years, we have nurtured and protected each film, and the integrity of the books upon which they are based, to the best of our ability.

The decision to move "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" was not taken lightly, and was never intended to upset our Harry Potter fans. We know you have built this series into what it is, and we thank you for your ongoing enthusiasm and support.

If I may offer a silver lining: there would have been a two-year gap between "Half-Blood Prince" and the much-anticipated first part of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," which opens in November 2010.

So although we have to wait a little longer for "Half-Blood Prince," the wait from that film until "Deathly Hallows" will be less than 18 months. I am sorry to have disappointed you now, but if you hold on a little longer, I believe it will be worth the wait.

Alan Horn
President, Chief Operating Officer
Warner Bros.

According to the poll on our main page, 60.3% of voters say it was a bad move on the studio's part, whereas 29.3% don't care either way, and 10.5% believe it was a good move.