The release date for “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” the sixth film in the franchise, was rescheduled yesterday for July 2009 from November 2008, when it was planned, movie studio Warner Bros. Pictures announced.

According to a studio official, the film producers were in need of a hit in the coming summer, rather than this fall, mainly for the reason that the awe-inspiring story of the Dark Knight brought an out-of-this-world revenue.

The four founding Warner brothers remarked that the fantasy series based on the Harry Potter novels appeals the public more in summertime. As they put it in plain words in a statement, the season of summer is the “ideal window for a family tent pole release.”

“They don’t need the money this year anymore,” a rival Hollywood studio executive declared. “When a movie over performs the way ‘The Dark Knight’ has, you really don’t need ‘Harry Potter’ in the fall.”

Alan Horn, the president of the film studio, said that the negative effects the three-month screenwriters’ strike had still affected “the readiness of scripts for other films."

The studio also noted that the eight-month change would have no impact on production plans for the seventh and final movie of the series phenomenon. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," which includes the final battle between the central character and the antagonist Lord Voldemort, is set to be released November 2010.

In “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” the main protagonist begins his 6th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and finds an old book, which was once the property of the Half-Blood Prince. Being determined to solve the puzzle, he will delve into the past of Lord Voldemort.

Fans of boy wizard Harry Potter reacted angrily to the news. "Words fail me. Well, polite words, anyway," a contributor called Emma commented on the website Firstshowing.com. "I can think of plenty of swear words."

Many other fans were not ashamed to use such language, but others signed an online petition demanding that the film be reinstated to its original November 21 release date. Others vowed to boycott the theatrical release of the movie and wait till it came out on DVD.