On Aug. 14, Warner Bros. Studios pulled a fast one. A very fast one.
In a split-second decision, the studio has decided to push the release of the film back — and it's not just back a few weeks or days, but eight months. 34 weeks. 325 days. It is now set to premiere on July 17 of next year.
The trailer premiere was shown during the August 1 theater release of "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor." Not only did this get our magical blood pumping through our veins, but set many of the fans right back to the sixth book in the series to re-read what they may have missed and refresh their memories.
Immediately after hearing of the trailer's release, Youtube exploded with hits from others dying to see it. As of last Thursday afternoon at 1:30 p.m., there were already over 2 million hits on the trailer's uploaded video.
According to Entertainment Weekly.com, the decision was made to assure that Harry Potter's profits won't seem pathetic compared to that of this year's summer blockbuster, "The Dark Knight," Christopher Nolan's phenomenal sequel to "Batman Begins" that was released July 18.
I suppose this makes sense, considering that Batman smashed box office records; however, the repercussions of this move are definitely something they should have considered.
Entertainment Weekly magazine suffered from the last-minute call, as Harry's face takes up the entire cover of the fall preview issue bordered with excerpts on the front regarding the originally planned fall release—talk about a slap in the face to the fans (no pun intended). After the release of the issue, which hit stands on Aug. 14, publicists for the magazine issued apologies to those disappointed fans.
Not only are the magazines dealing with the effects of this move, but movie theaters that were anticipating the hit release are also left wondering how to handle such a vacancy of this magnitude during one of their busiest box-office weekends. They will now have new poster spots to replace, and probably more theaters to fill as well since it was predicted that many theaters were going to be needed to hold the audiences for HP 6.
Fans were already stunned earlier this summer when it was released that the seventh and final chapter to the "Harry Potter" cinematic saga will be split into two films, not consolidated into one.
Some fans are outraged that they will have to wait to see the final piece of the story after already watching the first half to it; further, some believe that the studio blatantly ignored the desire of the fans just to make more money. Others, on the other hand, believe that the suspense will make for a better ending to the story by making sure all the necessary details of the book are included in the film.
Patience is not a virtue for many Harry Potter fans, but either way we don't have a choice in the matter.
Taking the spot of HP 6 is another popular novel-turned-movie, Summit Entertainment's film version of Stephanie Meyer's first novel of her series with the same name, "Twilight." The studio jumped at the opportunity to take the Nov. 21 spot to gain more awareness of the film and probably to make more money on that box-office weekend versus its intended release date of December 12.
Twilight tells the story of a high school girl who falls in love with a "vegetarian" vampire who refuses to drink human blood.
Summit's CEO did state in several that the studio was in no way trying to fill the shoes of "Harry Potter" even though Meyer has been consistently compared to Potter author J.K. Rowling. Rather, Summit maintains the delay was meant only to bring more attention to their film from a programming perspective.
I will say that it worked, because many who did not know of the series are now intrigued and checking out the books (myself included) to see whether the star-crossed love story will sate their thirst for a fantasy hit come November.
So, what are these fans supposed to do with themselves now? It has been almost four years since the last installment in the series was published, and anxious fans have been patiently waiting for the film depiction.
pushed back, harry potter
