‘Half-Blood Prince’ Moved Up Two Days

Now is the time where big, Summer blockbusters start shifting their release dates around and around to get that perfect spot.   Word came down yesterday that ‘Star Trek’ would be bowing about five hours prior to its scheduled, midnight release and screenings would begin at 7PM on May 7th.   Now comes word from Warner that ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ will be releasing on Wednesday, July 15th as opposed to Friday, the 17th.

This gives ‘Half-Blood Prince’ a nice running start towards the weekend box office.   This also gives ‘Half-Blood Prince’ an unneeded head start on other films bowing that weekend, ‘(500) Days of Summer’ and ‘All the Boys Love Mandy Lane.’

‘Order of the Phoenix’ pulled this same maneuver when it was released in 2007.   It pulled in $44 million that Wednesday, and ended the five-day run with $139 million in pocket.   There aren’t any other films like ‘Half-Blood Prince’ getting releases around this same time, so expect box office totals to be fully in the little wizard’s favor.

The film was originally slated for release on November 21st, 2008, but Warner pushed it towards a Summer release due to having an open slot at this time in July.

Source: ERC Box Office