‘Potter’ Release Date Pushed

Oh. My. God.  The new Harry Potter film ‘Half-Blood Prince’ has apparently been pushed back to next summer.  WB is blaming it on the writer’s strike (how convienent), but, no matter what the reason, this is huge for another reason.  TDK could actually beat out Titanic.  Let’s see some love WB.  You’ve got nothing else to worry about this year, and don’t you want to compete with the new Bond film coming out in November.  Let’s get another round of advertising going.  Read on for how long you’re going to have to wait, and why you should go see Batman again.

In a surprise move, Warner Bros. has moved the release date of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” from Nov. 21 to July 17. Warners president Alan Horn blamed last winter’s 100-day WGA strike in large part for the shift, suggesting all the major studios have been hurt in the development of new tentpole films for next summer.

“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,” Horn said. “We agreed the best strategy was to move ‘Half-Blood Prince’ to July, where it perfectly fills the gap for a major tentpole release for midsummer.”

The move also reflects execs’ belief that the “summer season is an ideal window for a family tentpole release,” he said.

Warners had hoped to have a franchise-launching movie based on the “Justice League of America” comic book ready for next summer, but the project was shelved indefinitely during the WGA strike.

With some unknown films being pushed by Disney and Universal, Batman would really have no problem getting the push it needs to take over the domestic #1 spot.  Can we finally see a changing of the guards that we so desperately deserve?  Please God yes!

Back to Potter.  This means that Potter will be one of the forces to reckon with next summer, being one of the biggest franchises available.  We officially have our first blockbuster announced and it’s looking like it’ll probably make bank.  I’ll be there.

For the entire (read LONG) article, head over to The Hollywood Reporter.