Ahira's Hangar

You better believe it.

--A

Well, I have a houseful of disappointed kids over this. They had started ticking off the calendar in anticipation for the next movie. Tristan keeps saying, "maybe it's just a rumor". But it seems very official.

Hahaha, and when you say a houseful...

--A

I think the point is that they expect the summer to be terrible, so they are moving one pretty much guaranteed blockbuster to those months and evening out the profit cycle. I don't think they are planning on making more with releasing it then, just at a different time of year.

...does that make sense? I don't really understand economics...

Most corporate financial data (such as profits) are (I think) either released quarterly or annually, and business taxes are usually paid quarterly (unless you are a large corporation, in which case you do not usually pay taxes at all). This particular studio already made a boatload of money with the new Batman movie this year. The bulk of those profits would be in a different quarter than HP6. So they might be going for moving the profits from HP6 to the next fiscal year (shafting millions upon millions of fans in the process) - possibly for tax reasons?

edited to add:
They have not only screwed over the fans, but they have probably screwed over a bunch of other businesses, too. Every company with a contract to produce licensed merchandise has just gotten into a least a bit of trouble. There are probably freighters crossing the Pacific right now filled with replica wands and action figures and movie soundtracks - for what the companies who made them thought would be a big holiday season release - with plenty of kids clamoring for them as holiday gifts. Now all that stuff will have to be stored until next summer when the movie comes out. And the summer has much softer sales than the holidays. So these companies would have paid for the right to make this stuff, paid for the materials and labor to produce it, shipped it, and now will have to store it for nearly a year. And they might not be able to sell as much of it as they had planned and produced because of the summer rather than holiday release date.

They might release the merchandise on schedule, as a further buildup to the movie. It's not like anybody who's read the books will be surprised at the ending anyhow....

Anyway, I suspect the timing of the release of that merchandise will be governed by Warner Bros.' contracts with the suppliers. I can't imagine they'll renegotiate all those contracts -- not to mention paying warehouse space until next summer here in the US (as I'm sure you're right, that stuff is already on the ships and headed for the USA).

We'll have to see whether or not Target and the like will be flooded with the stuff come November.

This seemed to be as good a place to ask as any...

Has anyone checked out the new release from Rpwling - the fairy tale book from Beedle the Bard?

I was wondering if it would make a nice holiday gift for Potter fans?

Batty was uninspired about it when I asked her if she wanted a copy for Yule. I think her words, more or less, were, "Meh. I'll probably buy it at some point." I haven't looked at it myself.