Harry Potter's Page >>>F E E D<<< Your Potter Addiction

Warner Bros. Responds to Fans' Concerns on HBP Date Change

Warner Bros. has kindly sent us a response to the fans regarding the date change to July 2009 for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The response comes from their President and Chief Operating Officer Alan Horn. Here is what he had to say:

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.

Print | RSS | Return Home |

by Buck Canuck @ 11 Sep 2008 - 13:02

Rubbish, the next Warner Bros flic I see will be HBP......Boycott!

by @ 25 Aug 2008 - 04:13

oh my god! what a cheek! devastates potter fans all over the world then has the nerve to think he can make it better by saying sorry and still keeping the july release date. does he honestly think he can make it better in any way other than if he changes the date back? he deserves every bit of hate mail he gets

by Joel @ 21 Aug 2008 - 15:35

Here is a question. What is to keep them from moving the first Deathly Hallows movie? We could still have a two year wait. What a horrible excuse to move a movie.

by seeker15 @ 21 Aug 2008 - 12:04

honestly, they said that now that dark knight did well, they don't need potter this year anymore. everyone knew that batman was going to do well. why did they choose to release them together in the first place?! if july 09 was the original release date, it wouldn't have been as bad because we would've been expecting it then. but they got all of our hopes up for november and then crushed them. and loony, how dare you call US selfish! warner brosthers is only moving the movie because of the money. thats all they care about. they don't care about our feelings, they only care about our MONEY! THEY'RE the selfish ones! they said that the movie could've been out in november. the move has NOTHING to do with making the movie better, just the profits. we just want what they promised us! oh, and does everyone remember how they said that they wanted to follow OOTP's lead since it was the second highest grossing movie and it was released during the summer? well the highest grossing HP movie was Sorcerer's Stone, released NOVEMBER 16!!! it was released in the fall and did FANTASTIC! why wouldn't HBP do the same?!

by @ 21 Aug 2008 - 02:24

i didn't mean to make you guys angry it's just not that big a deal. the petitions will just make them angry. i'm not saying that it's a good thing that they delayed it, i hate it aswell. twilight is on http://watch-movies.net/ so hp6 will probably be on there before it comes out too.

by Marquita @ 20 Aug 2008 - 11:25

Just because you say your sorry doesnt mean it makes it better. You still are making us wait. Wasnt it bad enough we had to wait till november now you have changed the dare again and made us wait. There is one good thing that comes out of this and that is twilight is coming out in its place.

by Ivy @ 20 Aug 2008 - 08:19

Another thought - I remember an old postal terror trick 20/20 or 60 minutes mentioned years ago...If we send them a jar of bent pennies or a brick - (the post office has to deliver as long as you pay the postage). Ok - your asking why bent pennies? As tight pocketed as WB seems to be - it would be a slap in the face that young fans (and older)would bust open their piggy banks to help WB - the reason to bend them, is to make sure WB doesn't get to use them (you know the cheap jerks would). Also - the brick is a nice touch (imagine the poor mail room folks and secretaries having to bring all these wrapped bricks to executives mail boxes and desks) - again, as tight as WB is looking, they might use the bricks to make a new Diagon alley set, so we'll break them after we package them (make em unusable). I'm sorry I am so angry about this...I am thinking of all the make a wish kids and cancer children at Loma Linda University Hospital that probably won't make it until July 09.

by Douglas "moody" @ 20 Aug 2008 - 08:06

The thing that make me most angry is Alan Horn's quote, "The picture is completely, absolutely, 100 percent on schedule, on time. There were no delays," Horn told The Associated Press. "I've seen the movie. It is fabulous. We would have been perfectly able to have it out in November."

"I'VE SEEN THE MOVIE...IT IS FABULOUS" --- are you kidding me? And they say they care about the fans, and that we would understand?

Someone please find this man's snail mail address and/or e-mail - or anyone at WB that cares - we need to let them know. Also, we need to speak someone at EA games - The summer release profits vs. a Holiday game release are going to make them our biggest allies.

I also can't believe JK has no input or control on this at all - has she posted any comments yet?

I agree with some other about the different ways of fighting back (most legal) - stop buying WB products (ie. stream their movies when possible - don't upload - that's illegal). No one see the movie the first 7 days it's out - I am sure a few CEOs will have their hats handed to them for that (I just hope we as fans can wait 7 more days).

by @ 20 Aug 2008 - 05:26

Yes it will work to sign petitions and email warner bros. so everyone keep doing it. By the way, telling us there would've been a 2 year gap between movies 6&7 would've been no big deal to us since that's the way the movies usually come out. There's 1 year between then 2 years between then it repeats. Keep emailing them and start boycotting!!!! boycotting is gonna be the only way they switch it back.

by Alice @ 20 Aug 2008 - 05:24

Your name really imitates your personality, Loony. We are not impatient and we're not selfish. We've been cheated by Warner Brothers. They promised us November, and November is what we want.

by @ 20 Aug 2008 - 02:43

sheesh there are some impatient people in the world. can't you just wait a bit longer? all we have to do is sit around and wait. don't even bother making petitions cos it won't do anything, it just goes to show how selfish you are.

by archy @ 20 Aug 2008 - 01:08

BOOOOO!we are still angry! fff

by teresa @ 20 Aug 2008 - 00:55

Why not figure this out before releasing the trailer and hyping up the November release date? Money, that's why...isn't a billion dollars, or however much the dark knight brought in enough to budget for next year? I think we should keep this up even if it gets us nowhere, just for the mere fact that we've been treated like fools.

by @ 20 Aug 2008 - 00:01

Give me a break, it would suffice as an excuse if he actually presented one. The least he could do is admit that this is about protecting his own job. Go to http://pottersorder.blogspot.com and participate in their email intiative.

by @ 19 Aug 2008 - 22:42

Nope! Sorry, the lame excuse trick won't work. Please everyone keep signing the petitions and keep emailing warner bros. I can't believe they tried that lame line about not having to wait as long between HBP and DH. What a low way to try to win us back over. I strongly disagree with them and will keep emailing them til they move it back to November. It's up to the fans to get it moved back again and if we boycott movies starting now they'll get the message.