If you’re a Harry Potter fan who had to suffer the anguish of Warner Bros. delaying the latest big-screen adventure of your favorite boy wizard, I’m sorry to report that the universe is not done punishing you: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will now have to wait two weeks after its initial theatrical release before it will premiere in IMAX theaters.
Harry and Co. are on standby until Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen finishes its run in IMAX theaters, leaving Warner Bros. potentially screwed when it comes to turning a profit from Half-Blood Prince’s IMAX box office.
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I’m laughing at Warner Bros. right now. The studio causes this big stir last Fall by yanking Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from its original November 2008 release date in order to pad the studio’s slim roster of summer 2009 blockbusters, and what ends happening? Karma, pure and simple (at least IMHO). They tried to make a move to snag some extra cash and make their books for Summer ‘09 look good, and instead it looks like they’ll end up meeting the same fate they feared (lower profits) on the road they took to avoid it. IMAX is already feeling the burn: shares of the company dropped 4% on Monday.
According to Forbes, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will only debut in two IMAX theaters on its scheduled July 14th release date: one in New York City, the other in Los Angeles. Unless you live in either of those places (or are willing to travel), you will have an additional two-week wait before you catch Harry Potter on the big, big, screen.
Transformers 2's Devastator will be filling up IMAX screens for weeks.
Make no mistake: this is a significant blow to Warner Bros. Both Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen offer fans exclusive content that is only be available on the IMAX prints. For Transformers 2, that content comes in the form of several sequences that were shot in hi-resolution “true IMAX”; for Half-Blood Prince, twelve minutes of 3D footage. This kind of exclusive content provides great incentive for moviegoers to shell out extra money to see a film in IMAX; the only question now is, will Harry Potter fans wait two extra weeks and/or shell out additional cash to see Half-Blood Prince in IMAX?
We saw last year with the The Dark Knight that movie fans are open to repeat viewings of a film if they can’t intially snag an IMAX ticket on opening weekend. But The Dark Knight was also an Oscar-winning film – will Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince be good enough to warrant that kind of consumer interest?
I can’t say anything for sure, but my vote is “nope.” Personally, I want Warner Bros. to take this hit. I want Hollywood to see that making decisions to fatten your pocket or pad your summer stats sometimes has consequences. As for you Harry Potter fans out there: this isn’t my fault, but I’ll still say sorry; hopefully you get to enjoy this film (in all its IMAX glory) sometime before the next century…
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince hits standard theaters (and two NYC/LA IMAX theaters) on July 14, 2009. The movie hits IMAX theaters everywhere on July 29, 2009.
Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen hits theaters (standard and IMAX) on June 24, 2009.
Source: Forbes
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16 Comments
haha, fail
So Transformers will be in IMAX from June 24th to July 13th? Ok good cause I’ll be at a camp from mid June to July 3rd and now I have more time to go see it in IMAX.
That’s quite a coup for Transformers 2.
Damn!
I would be embarrassed if I were the Transformer people- it shows how much confidence that the public has that their movie will fill Imax theaters. Obviously people must think the IMAX theaters will not be as full as it would be with the HP movie.
Huh @ Sandy?
I don’t think this is going to hurt Harry Potter’s box-office significantly because the “opening weekend” argument only really works if there are weekly blockbusters stacked after Prince. This isn’t the case. Other than G.I. Joe a few weeks later, there’s pretty much NOTHING coming out after Potter. If Prince was a, say, first-weekend-in-May movie, I think the IMAX postponement might hurt, because there’d be new movies coming out in succeeding weeks to draw away attention.Which is not the case here.
“will Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince be good enough to warrant that kind of consumer interest?”
I’m sorry, but, I think you underestimate the fans of the Harry Potter franchise. Many are so obsessed that they’ll not only watch the film in a regular theater, but they will see it another time just for that IMAX “experience”. Whether the movie is “good” or not, will have no effect, TRUST me. Considering the trash(imho) that was given to Harry Potter fans with the 4th and 5th film. I just think that the fan base is just SO inumerable, that I’m going to have to say that this little IMAX delay will hardly affect Warner Bros. negatively. Although I do agree that they deserve it if it does happen.
I agree with Fan… for me, I will actually be taking the afternoon of the 15th off to take my family to go see it; we’re all big HP fans (well… mostly me and my son)… but, I will only shell out extra for IMAX if, and only if, we are really blown away by the regular version, because now we’re talking about four tickets instead of just one for me.
It will have to be awesome.
But if I was a high school or college kid, I’d see both without hesitation. This might actually make them MORE money.
I think this is highly underestimating the Harry Potter fans. I am one as well and my friends and I had planned on seeing this movie in IMAX. And that’s what we’ll do. But we won’t miss out on opening weekend, that’s for sure.
To Fred, I am a college student. You can bet I’ll be seeing it both ways!
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