Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince pushed back to July 2009.
The release date for the sixth Harry Potter movie, ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’, was pushed back today to July 2009 from its original slot in November 2008.
A spokesman for Warner said it had decided to make the sudden change to bolster its release schedule for the lucrative summer moviegoing season — a period that can account for as much as 40 percent of Hollywood’s annual box office receipts.
Warner Bros. President Alan Horn said the studio was also still feeling repercussions from the three-month Hollywood screenwriters strike that ended in February but has “impacted the readiness of scripts for other films.”
“We know the summer season is an ideal window for a family … release, as proven by the success of our last Harry Potter film, which is the second-highest grossing film in the franchise, behind only the first installment,” Horn said.
The studio said the change of date would not alter production plans for the final, two-part Potter movie adventure, ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’. The release date for part one is tentatively set for November 2010.