(Well, it’s not exactly my only excuse... but more on that later in the week.)
But the heat wave has broken now, so it’s time to blog again. Plus, I’m really mad and I need to rant.
It came to my attention on Thursday night that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, previously scheduled for a November 21 release, has been pushed back to next summer, and is now set to premiere on July 17, 2009. This irritates me, for a multitude of reasons. Not the least of which is that it totally ruins my plans for my birthday this year, on November 22.
But even more irritating than finding out that I would have to wait an extra eight months for the movie was the way in which the news was presented. Now, I understand the decision from a business perspective — sort of. Obviously, the writers’ strike took longer to become obvious in movie theatres than it did on television screens, due to the exponentially longer production schedules, so it makes sense that Warner Bros. wants to spread a bit of the wealth into next year. Of course, I’m sure The Dark Knight is partially responsible as well, causing those at the WB to be concerned about keeping their overall profits up next year.
That’s all well and good. It doesn’t excuse the fact, however, that Warner Bros. announced their decision in what can only be described as a textbook example of how to outrage their customers. So, just in case a situation like this arises again, I’m offering the guys in charge at the WB some free advice on public relations:
1. The fans are not stupid.
In an effort to put a happy face on the news, Jeff Robinov, president of the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, was quoted as saying that “The good news (for fans) is that the gap will now be shortened between ‘Half Blood Prince’ and the first part of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.’” Oh. So we should be grateful to the studio for putting off the premiere. They’re just doing us a favor.
I hate to be the one to tell Mr. Robinov that most Harry Potter fans are smart enough to figure out that it also lengthens the gap between Half Blood Prince and Order of the Phoenix. If you must give the fans bad news, at least don’t underestimate their intelligence and try to convince them to be happy about it. The only people grateful to Warner Bros. over this move are the people who produced Twilight.
2. Don’t taunt the fans.
Warner Bros. president Alan Horn took a different approach in trying to reassure fans. He told reporters that “I’ve seen the movie. It’s fabulous. We would have been perfectly able to have it out in November.”
Now, I’m not advocating lying to the fans, or trying to mislead them in any way (see no. 1). But really? You honestly think it softens the blow to mention that you’ve already seen it, and it’s great? I imagine that quote spoken in the voice of Nelson from The Simpsons, followed by “I’ve seen it and you can’t! And I could have let you if I wanted to! Ha ha!” I mean, really?
3. Don’t make matters worse by embarrassing your own company.
Not handling your fans well is one thing, but hanging one of your corporate subsidiaries out to dry? Of course, we don’t know exactly when Warner Bros. made this decision. But you would hope they would have done so early enough to get out ahead of the annual “fall movie” media blitz. And if not, you’d think they still would have had enough class to give a “heads up” to the folks at Entertainment Weekly. Also a division of Warner Bros., EW put out their annual Fall Movie Preview issue this week, only to be embarrassed Here’s the cover:
Um, yeah. ‘Cause that’s not embarrassing or awkward. At all.
Of course, I’m still planning on my usual ritual of re-reading all of the books, followed by seeing the movie as early as I possibly can. Preferably in IMAX. (Did I mention that I’m a geek?) But I refuse to be happy or grateful about the delay, no matter what anyone at the WB says.
If they wanted fans to keep the fans happy (or at least relatively non-violent) despite the postponement, it would have been much easier to deflect the bad publicity by focusing on this. If it’s true, I’m pretty sure it will definitely make everyone forget about the release date.
1 comment:
I'd say that pretty much nails the situation squarely on its point head.
Maybe a "Hey, we've thought long and hard about this, and we're actually going to re-edit the film to add in about an extra half-hour of stuff that was too good to cut."
The "no, really, you'll like delayed gratification" motif is a complete non-starter.
As an aside, glad to see you're back in front of the keys again. Now, I've got to get back to listening to Jim Dale read Deathly Hallows.
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