The "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" movie has been delayed

According to a story that has just appeared on Reuters, the release date of the sixth Harry Potter movie, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", has been pushed back by production studio Warner Bros. from November this year - the new scheduled release date is now July 17, 2009. Oh no! I was so looking forward to seeing it this year!

Apparently, Warner Bros. said it had decided to make the 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 which 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 instalment", 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.

"Deathly Hallows", the seventh and last story from British author J.K. Rowling about the boy wizard and his friends at Hogwarts School, was published in July 2007. The series has sold an estimated 400 million copies, and the books have been translated into more than 60 languages.

See my Harry Potter Movie Series Gallery and Harry Potter Book Series Gallery pages for more information - both pages also include some Harry Potter online games to play.