I am writing in regards to your recent announcement that you are delaying the release of the new Harry Potter film by 8 months, moving the film from November 21st, 2008 to July 17th, 2009.Let me start by saying I understand that this is strictly a business decision.. I get it.. 2008 has been a HUGE year for your studio with the release of "The Dark Knight" which has quickly become the number two highest grossing movie of all time, right next to Titanic. The sixth Harry Potter film is also expected to be a HUGE, successful movie for you. I know, you must also look at the future and thanks to the writers strike you have very few movies set to come out next summer, and nothing (Besides Terminator: Salvation) that could become a huge hit. I understand that having one year of record income, then a year without a big hit, is bad for the studio and so the simple BUSINESS solution is to move a known hit from 2008 to 2009 to help balance the books. That all makes perfect business sense.
BUT.. what is the cost of this maneuver? While the numbers may make more sense.. what is this going to cost you in the long run? I would venture a guess that this is a mistake of HUGE proportions.
First, the film you chose to mess with is not a little, small film. It's a Harry Potter film. Remember last summer, all those fans lined up to buy the final book? Remember fans lining up around city blocks to see the 5th movie? Congratulations.. you just ticked off one GIANT group of people, now all threatening not to attend any movies that you release until next July. Way to go! Let's not forget that the Potter films have brought you over 5 Billion dollars in box office returns. It's the Harry Potter films that have helped you become the studio that you are today. So what do you do such a loyal fan base? Kick them in the groin. Who cares.. right? Come July it's not like they are NOT going to see the movie.. The fans will get over it.. But will you still be in business by the time they do?
Have we already forgotten about New Line Cinema? The studio that produced the Lord of the Rings films. The studio that made record profits from these films.. the studio that then started to make a bunch of bad decisions based on money.. the studio that got greedy.. that directors and producers didn't want to do business with thanks to how the studio handled its finances.. the studio.. that is now out of business..
Second... It's not like you didn't see this coming. The writers strike ended months ago. You had plenty of time to make this decision. You knew that the Dark Knight would be huge. You knew that there were not many movies opening next year. And yet you chose to make this decision after starting the "T-minus 3 months" major film marketing campaign. The teaser trailer is playing in the theaters.. the posters are up.. magazines are publishing photos and articles to promote the movie, video game creators are finalizing their releases, manufacturers of the tie-in products are making their stuff.. and so you choose THEN to yank the carpet out from below everyone's feet? You couldn't have done this even two weeks earlier, when the formal marketing campaign hadn't kicked off yet? Talk about dangling a HUGE carrot in front of everyone, getting all the fans talking and excited.. just what you want at this stage of marketing, only to take it all away? What kind of business sense is this? Once you start selling a movie, you better be ready to follow through or people will not take your future campaigns seriously and you destroy your credibility.
Next, Ok.. so I understand.. you need to move the film to 2009 to balance the loads. So then push it back to say.. mid-January... the fans would only have to wait 2 additional months. Still stinks, but doable. But no. You have to push it out to July.. to the same weekend that Dark Knight came out this year. Why? To make money!!! But to me.. this is a bogus argument. It's a film with a built in, established audience. They will attend the movie regardless of when it opens. It could open on a Tuesday in February.. guess what.. we'd all be there. It's not like you are going to have a huge number of people that will start watching Harry Potter movies on the 6th one. We'll all go regardless...
And you know what? Why did Dark Knight make so much money? Was it because of THAT weekend in particular? No. It was because it was a FANTASTIC MOVIE!!! One that when you leave the theater after seeing it, you immediately want to go back in and see it again. Sooo.. Take a movie, make it a GREAT movie that will get people talking, that will get the word of mouth to spread around how good it is so that more and more people buy tickets. Then, again, it will not matter what weekend you open the film on.. it will be huge. "But we can't open the film in January.. no one goes to the movies that month.. it will limit the success of the film". Bogus. Remember that one film more successful than Dark Knight.. That Titanic movie? When did that open? In December, and with each weekend that it was out, it made more and more money.. into January.. into February.. into March. People didn't care when the movie came out.. they just wanted a great movie going experience and paid regardless of what the calendar said.
It's obvious you are doing this for one reason.. to try to make more money.. you don't even hide behind that in your press release. You are taking one of your most profitable franchises with the most active fans and running them over with a bus, all in an attempt to make more money, with no insight as to the damage this may do to your studio and reputation down the road. You come across as greedy rats willing to destroy what you have in an attempt to make a few more bucks.
And then, before the sting even has a chance to wear down, you come out with your moronic excuses... "We are just trying to do what is best for the film.. to give it the best chance to succeed" (meaning.. we want more money) give us a break! Or the line from Alan Horn, President of Warner Brothers: "We would never do anything to hurt one of the movies or the series. We love our fans." Yeah.. ok. Your stupid decision making and timing are surely showing that. If you loved your fans so much, you would have left it alone, let the fans have their movie and stuck whatever money you made in the bank so you'd have it for next year. If you loved your fans you wouldn't be teasing us with high quality marketing and then pushing us to the curb.
I am trying to look at this without my emotion of being a big Harry Potter fan get in the way... I am trying to put the disappointment of myself (and my son, gearing up to go to celebrate his twelfth birthday at this film) aside and make sense of this. And I just can't. From every angle, you come across looking like greedy rats, that can only see the short term, that I wouldn't want to do business with. Pure and simple.. just the stupidest thing I have heard all year. I sure hope you know what you are doing... besides working for Voldemort...
Sincerely,
Calvin,
Simple Harry Potter fan trying to make sense of this...
