With Harry Potter Gone, 'Twilight' Moves Up to Nov. 21!
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, New Releases, Warner Brothers, Fandom, Distribution, Family Films, Newsstand, Harry Potter
For all you Harry Potter fans who are also devoted to a certain series of teen-vampire romance novels, here's something that should help you deal with Thursday's devastating news about Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince being pushed back to next summer. Summit Entertainment announced today that with Harry having vacated the November 21 spot, they're going to fill it with Twilight, bumping it up a full three weeks from its original date of December 12.
While some fans wondered, irrationally, if the Harry Potter move was to get away from Twilight, Summit's CEO says Twilight never had any delusions of being more powerful than the boy wizard at the box office. "With a giant franchise like Harry Potter in the market, we had to stay clear of it," Rob Friedman told Variety -- hence the original date well away from Half-Blood Prince. "Their move created an opportunity to bring the movie to fans three weeks earlier."
Once November 21 opened up, the move was really a no-brainer. As a press release from Summit points out, movie theaters get very crowded around the holidays, and Twilight will be able to open on far more screens on November 21 than it could have on December 12. Now it'll be opening the Friday before Thanksgiving, too, which is nearly always a plus. Its only competition will be Disney's animated Bolt. The only loser here is Entertainment Weekly, whose Fall Movie Preview is now wrong again, before most readers have even seen it. (Or, from another point of view, now that issue is even more of a collector's item.)
What do you say? Are you excited about getting Twilight sooner? To those of you who have been sending Warner Bros. wrathful messages about the Harry Potter move, does this quell your anger somewhat? Will you at least be able to live and function and carry on?
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Reader Comments
(Page 1)2. Both books are amazingly good as well as different. Have you even read both series? Twilight is right up there with HP just a different kind of book
Posted at 1:06AM on Sep 9th 2008 by Amy
3. thnk god!!
i love the twilight series.
and ppl you gotta admit, Harry Potter is dragging on and on. It got so boring.
Twilight fans know that the Twilight movie is gonna be 100 times better!
I LOVE TWILIGHT!!
Posted at 10:07PM on Aug 15th 2008 by DanniiLove
4. OMG!!! I love twilight to. For all those pppl who think its a harry potter knock off. i have one word... WHATEVER!! Twilight is AMazing. My brother is a harry potter fanatic and he has read all of the twilight series and loves em!!!So i cant wait for NOV. 21.. midnight premeire!!! WHEW!!!
Posted at 8:26AM on Oct 27th 2008 by imcarlislecrazy11
5. I just don't see a teenybopper vampire romance having much crossover appeal. There should be a nice boost for Bolt though.
Posted at 10:36PM on Aug 15th 2008 by Jen
6. I never liked twilight . everyone thinks it's gonna be the next harry potter, but I doubt it's gonna last
Posted at 11:31PM on Aug 15th 2008 by Rod
7. Yes!!!!! I love Twilight!!!! but i'm still pisses off that i have to wait almost a year for the next HP movie! oh well at least Twilight comes out sooner!!! :D
Posted at 11:59PM on Aug 15th 2008 by Gaby
8. How dissapointed i feel about this change...oh well it aint fair that we have to wait so long extra than we have already waited for the HP movie.
But i love the TWILIGHT serie and to tell the truth i been more anxious about the Twilight movie than the HP one so i dont have much to complain about...(Cant say i would feel the same if Twilight was the one that moved...that would have been a disaster..sigh**).
Posted at 12:11AM on Aug 16th 2008 by migdismla
9. i was interested in the twilight movie, the first three books were reasonably decent enough to make me want to see a movie version. of course the 4th and final book took some crazy turn and its sort of soured my overall opinion of the twilight series. it doesn't even come close to the harry potter series, not even a bit.
i'm still upset that HP is coming out next year. i was really looking forward to november especially knowing that it wasn't that far away.
Posted at 12:53AM on Aug 16th 2008 by joits
10. This will make up for WB's devastating blow a little bit, but I'm still not happy with the HP move. At least not now. I love HP and have been looking forward to this for a while, and now it's almost a year away now instead of 3 months. I was looking forward to Twilight, but not as much as Hp.
And honestly, I saw the completed clip they released from Twilight, and the directing looks like it's a TV show, which it's not.
Posted at 7:51AM on Aug 16th 2008 by Steven
11. While I'm not a Twilight fan in any respect (except for Robert Pattinson's face) and I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan, I'm expected to be angered by this, but I say good on them. I can't even express my dissatisfaction with the Harry Potter film franchise right now. They snooze, they lose.
Rah Rah Twilight.
Posted at 11:40AM on Aug 16th 2008 by Carrie
12. i'm actually glad harry potter isnt
coming out in november
the first what maybe 3movies were good
but now its just getting old i mean
it's the same story you know
they fight blah blah blah harry wins
big woop
Woo Twilight!!!
Cant Wait!
Posted at 3:31PM on Aug 16th 2008 by A
13. yeah, um... this comment is for everyone who says HP drags on and twilight is better and what not. well, i think that moving HP all the way to the next ***** year is totally horrid and whats worse is that twilight is replacing it. i give full credit for a good decent first and third book of the twilight series, but when i heard the movie coming out i almost cried myself to tears with laughter. you have got to be kidding me. i think that Patterson is a cute guy, but the crappy makeup artists did not do a good job at all. his eyes are bulging out of his poor head. Anyways, this blows, o and make sure to look out for me at the midnight showing of twilight! (I'll be the loudest one there making fun of it) and don't worry, i'll bring my friends. DUMBLEDORES ARMY!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, and don't worry, i'll probably be kicked out before half way through the movie or i'll leave and get my money back.
Posted at 5:15PM on Aug 19th 2008 by kate
14. i am so excited for twilight coming out sooner!! i can wait for harry potter and for ppl saying twilight is going die out well guess wat?!?! its not going to actully try reading the saga! now like someone said before harry potter is jus draging on and i mean seriously its a verry good! movie but its time to let a new one take over!!! and that would beTWILIGHT!!
Posted at 7:02PM on Aug 16th 2008 by meghan
15. Snaps for Summit. A very smart move in my opinion. And the positive response is very heartening. And it also means that they (Catherine and the cast, etc...) can get started immediately after the release of Twilight on the pre-production of New Moon...
The three week jump to November also means we get to see Robert Pattinson in this role that much sooner! I'm very excited to see the final result of his characterization of this role........Plus, with Twilight moving up, it will give his other films, How To Be and Little Ashes a better jumping off point to get their films a wider release. )I'm actually a bit more excited to see the latter two films, than I am about Twilight.)
However all three of these films will not disappoint any of us who are floored by the talent this actor possesses. I'm looking forward to everything his career brings him. I know nothing short of greatness will come his way!
Posted at 11:29PM on Aug 16th 2008 by blearyeyedmesgirl
16. Go Summit! Show Warner Bros the real way to treat a fandom.
I love Twilight and Harry Potter. I was really looking foward to both movies. I'm still upset about the HBP pushback but getting Twilight earlier is definitely great news. I can't wait to see it!
Posted at 12:18PM on Aug 17th 2008 by samantha
17. i'm excited to see twilight but i really wanted to see harry potter too! the trailer is so cool! but i don't think that twilight will take over harry potter because the series has only 4 books whereas hp has 7 with more interesting plots that are so unpredictable. the twilight books were so easy to predict and i think that it appeals to mostly girls while hp appeals to both genders. i wonder if they will make movies for new moon, eclipse, and breaking dawn because robert pattinson is getting older--he's already 23 and he's trying to act as a 17-year-old so by the time they film breaking dawn he would be 26--almost 10 years older.
Posted at 5:14PM on Aug 17th 2008 by grace
18. Yeah, I guess my anger is slightly cooled down. But I gotta say, that Im still gunna be upset over HP. I love it a lot! But then again, I also like Twilight alot, too. So it doesn't really matter, as long as Twilights gunna be out this year--Im happy.
Posted at 8:54PM on Aug 18th 2008 by Alaina
19. "Anyways, this blows, o and make sure to look out for me at the midnight showing of twilight! (I'll be the loudest one there making fun of it) and don't worry, i'll bring my friends. DUMBLEDORES ARMY!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, and don't worry, i'll probably be kicked out before half way through the movie or i'll leave and get my money back."
See, this is why children shouldn't be allowed to go to movies or use the Internet.
Posted at 5:19PM on Aug 19th 2008 by Eric D. Snider
20. I reckon. Like, totally. Hmm, speaking of, I think I should brace myself for the aggro hp-loyal-to-death fans that's gonna crash the Twilight premiere.
....
Or maybe not. Since like, we really should be sympathetic. And that kind of behavior kate suggested is totally rational - on a ludicrous point of view. (Well, let's just try switching shoes for a sec. If it were Twilight, I personally, would expect worse of Twilight-die-hard fans. Which includes me. Only I'm the hyperventilating one, not the rolling-everywhere-type. :P)
Can't wait! Can't wait! Can't wait to rub in to the Twilight- underestimating-discrediting-HP-biased people that TWILIGHT really kicks. some. serious. butt-show.
Enough said, Sorry again for the digressing rant. 0=)
Posted at 8:39AM on Aug 23rd 2008 by Nessie
1. Twilight is the poor man's Harry Potter. It's like Robocop to The Terminator.
Posted at 9:23PM on Aug 15th 2008 by mezzanine