Harry Potter hangs up wand in 2011

Warner sets release date for Deathly Hallows: Part II

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Entertainment, 26th February 2009 16:40 GMT

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Warner Bros has announced that its Harry Potter franchise will wind up with a 15 July 2011 release for Deathly Hallows: Part II, the BBC reports.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is due to hit the big screen in July this year - an eight-month knock-back designed to "guarantee the studio a major summer blockbuster in 2009", according to Warner prez Alan Horn. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I is slated for a 19 November 2010 premiere.

Horn insisted that the decision to delay the release of The Half-Blood Prince was not down purely to the desire to extract as much cash as possible from the movie, and cited the 2008 Hollywood writers' strike as a contributory factor.

The Beeb notes that the first five Potter films have raked in a whopping $4.5bn (£2.2bn) across the globe - which makes it "the biggest film franchise in box office history, surpassing both James Bond and Star Wars". ®

Bootnote

If you're reading this in the first place you'll certainly be aware that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was split into two cinematic outings "as it was impossible to cram its 608 pages into a single film", as the BBC puts it.

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