-= Gametoast.com =-

Crazy_Ewok wrote:Not really a Harry Potter Fan, but I couldn't resist saying this "It's not about the money....it's about sending a message"

the article wrote:Additionally, like every other studio, we are still feeling the repercussions of the writers' strike, which impacted the readiness of scripts for other films

Maveritchell wrote:It's not like these people make movies as a fan service. They're money-making endeavors, so it's pretty logical to postpone it if it's going to make more money.

I mean, darn them for doing their jobs well, right?

So, wait - there's nothing wrong with the production of Half-Blood Prince? It's not delayed on its own accord? It's the production of OTHER FILMS that's precipitating you sitting on a completed, massively-anticipated blockbuster for half a year?!

There's so many reasons that this is a bad idea. It will slice powerfully into the production of Deathly Hallows, pulling many key members of the cast and crew away from the production schedule so they can do the press tour for HBF. That same cast and crew will probably suffer a blow in the wallet because of that, since the delay in the press junkets will cause them to not have the expected income that they'd have received at the end of this year (actors and directors don't endure inane interview after inane interview for free, y'know). This totally changes the landscape of the end of the year, yanking away one of the major guaranteed money-makers of the fourth quarter of '08, landing a massive blow to distributors who were counting on that winter income. Summer ain't the only time to make money on movies, after all. And most of all, WB's retarded executives can make excuse after excuse and it won't change the fact that a ridiculous delay like this is always - ALWAYS - seen as a huge public embarassment. Again, the cast and crew are going to be pissed because it's going to come across like the studio doesn't have confidence in the film. And the executives are going to be called out for being massive idiots...which is apparently true, but it's obviously not a perception of themselves that it's in their best interests to foster.

The last delay like this that I can recall was Cars, from Nov. '05 to June '06. In that case, Pixar didn't make much of an announcement out of it (they're normally pretty secretive about that stuff), but a lot of the scuttlebutt was that they were pushing it back to give Disney another chance to woo them back to the fold. And that worked. But that's not what Warner Bros. is doing here. They're just trying to duplicate TDK in another summer, without having even the tiniest iota of understanding that there are far more factors in TDK's success beyond its release date. The stories about WB's execs are pretty much the worst in the industry, but it's rare that they make such a flagrant display of their own pig ignorance.