New Harry Potter movie moved to July 17, 2009!

[JadedRaverLA]

Wow. Pretty ballsy move on their part. Aside from the teenage fans crying themselves to sleep every night for the next week and the thousands of signatures on internet petitions that no one will read, all the marketing partners have got to be furious with them changing the date this late in the game. Toys, the video game, fast food tie-ins, etc, all were counting on HP being released in November. While this will help their slate next summer, their partners have got to be going crazy.

And to change the date so suddenly is fairly strange. Time Warner's own magazine Entertainment Weekly just put out the fall movie preview double issue (hit newsstands and homes yesterday) with Harry Potter on the cover and an extensive article on the film. EW is calling it their Dewey Beats Truman cover now -- I believe Premiere also has HP on the cover of their fall movie issue.

Still, it does make sense to push the date. Given WBs focus on Blu-ray/DVD, the marketing blitz for TDK is going to be massive this fall, and competing with themselves on the ad campaigns wasn't really a good plan. Also, I think as a studio (if not the overall company) WB is in very good shape right now -- though next summer was looking sparse. Add to that the writer's strike freeing up some "blockbuster" slots, and the next HP movie not coming out until Nov. 2010 and it makes a lot more sense to release next summer. Having the Blu-ray/DVD released in December as opposed to May will be a nice boost as well.

Originally Posted by jasonbird

Sorry, it's not good business sense. The Potter movies released in the Winter do much better than those released in the Summer:

That's a faulty argument on many levels. You've got a sample size of only 5 movies and no actual pattern based on the only criterion you're looking at (release month). Simply averaging the box office totals and comparing looking at only release month doesn't really tell you anything. The first movie did the best at the box office, and would have regardless of release month. The last movie made the next most money and was released in the summer... throwing the entire theory off. The level of "Pottermania" surrounding each film's release, the actual quality of the film, competition around the release date, etc, all have FAR more to do with each movie's box office total than just the release month. In general, though, if you can get a few weeks with no major competition over the summer you should be able to do far better than with a November release. That opportunity presented itself next summer, and it makes sense to take it.

Also, when you look at how Blu-rays and DVDs sell in November/December vs. May/June (looking at ALL releases, not just the small HP sample), it makes perfect business sense. Plus, DH part 1 isn't hitting until November 2010, so a 2 year break was going to occur one way or the other... better to get it out of the way now and let the last three films build to the finale. The only thing I don't understand is why they waited unti9l now to push it -- it would have been better to push it before the trailers got released, magazines started their write-ups, and partners started mass-producing Potter tie-in crap.

[fighthefutureofhd]

that's a good point you made about why they waited until now to push it. it's not like a cd or anything. you can't just easily push back a movie like one can with a cd. not easily anyway.