Well, my heart just broke into two. After browsing my usual Ayumi Hamasaki message board, I came across something very disappointing: the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie, the sixth installment of the HP series, will now premiere on July 17, 2009 in the U.S. — nearly eight months after the original release date of November 21, 2008.

The reason — unsurprisingly — is so Warner Bros. can take advantage of the financial benefits of opening during a weekend in the summer season, according to this Yahoo! News article.

The move was made to take advantage of an open weekend in Hollywood’s busy summer season, said Alan Horn, Warner Bros. president and chief operating officer. “The picture is completely, absolutely, 100 percent on schedule, on time. There were no delays,” Horn told The Associated Press. “I’ve seen the movie. It is fabulous. We would have been perfectly able to have it out in November.”

And to think, I was passionately looking forward to the HBP release this fall… especially after seeing the teaser, which is now for a movie to be released almost a full year from now.

Thanks Warner Bros. Now I have to wait another 10 months. The only upside: the wait between the sixth and seventh movies will be less.

Full article from Yahoo! News: http://news.yahoo.com/story//ap/20080814/ap_on_en_mo/film_harry_potter