Warner Brothers talks about why they pushed Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince back
Official word is starting to trickle down from the powers on high at Warner Brothers on why, exactly, they decided to push the release of Half-Blood Prince back. Here it is, from the president of WB, Alan Horn:
Warner currently is riding high with “The Dark Knight,” the Batman film that also stars Bale. The grim super-hero movie has taken in $452 million in the U.S. since its July 18 release, making it the second-highest grossing film ever.
To some degree, that success motivated Warner to shift “Half-Blood Prince,” Horn said. The film will now hit theaters the same midsummer weekend that “Dark Knight” was released this year. Horn said the young, core Potter audience would be out of school and give the film a longer theatrical life. It will now open opposite Universal’s special-effects comedy “Land of the Lost,” which stars Will Ferrell. But Horn said there was nothing next year compared to this summer’s especially dense slate of big-budget releases.
The article wrapped up with this quote from Horn: “We would never do anything to hurt one of the movies or the series. We love our fans.”
- source
So, basically, it comes down to one thing: MONEY. Which, I can understand. But this is still hard to take. What do you think?
Here’s my theory,and you can take it how you will. I believe that they moved HBP back because Daniel Radcliffe will be smack dab in the middle of “Equus”, an extremely controversial film about animal cruelty, mental illness, and sex with horses. That’s probably not the image that WB wants to have associated with Half-Blood Prince; they probably want to move it back so the two don’t compete. Just my theory (Equus will be running on Broadway at the same time). Don’t you think it would be a wee bit awkward for Daniel to be promoting HBP and answering questions about mauling horses at the same time? Uh, yeah!
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2 opinions for Warner Brothers talks about why they pushed Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince back
Anna
Aug 15, 2008 at 15:54
I assumed it would be money. It always is… See, I assumed they moved it because of the Twilight film (which was set to be released about 2 weeks after HBP). Didn’t want another big film stealing their audience so quickly *shrug* Even if that wasn’t the reason… it will certainly appear that way now. One of the reasons I think this (besides the fact that Twilight has a fanbase big enough to compete with Potter) is that, even though they claim more people will be able to see the film durring the summer, most people actually see movies durring the Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks… so their logic just doesn’t seem to add up there. Oh well. Whatever their reason, it’s still dissapointing to be reminded that in the end… its all about money.
taylor
Aug 17, 2008 at 17:38
twilight. thats all it is. wb doesnt want to split audience over twilight.
ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
vive xe :Q
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