As readers will know, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will be opening on over 160 screens in IMAX starting Wednesday, July 29th. As such, WB and IMAX have now launched a new video intro from actor Dan Radcliffe, as well as a contest to win a special Half-Blood Prince T-shirt and poster; all can be found here. Be sure to scroll down to access the video section, where you can see a new trailer for the imax (tv spot and regular trailer) as well as check the downloads for a wallpaper.

I’ve been wondering about this lately!

Attractions Magazine has a new article online today, containing some interesting names and trademarked registered by Warner Bros for possible use at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  In the past WB has registered a host of names that were never intended to be used for such things as titles of the Harry Potter novels so these could just be decoys!

• “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey” is filed under “Entertainment services in the nature of an amusement park ride.”
• “Flight of the Hippogriff” and “Dragon Challenge,” are likely going to be the new names for the existing Flying Unicorn and Dueling Dragons rides.
• “Owl Post” and “Dervish and Banges” are categorized as retail stores.
• “Hogsmeade Village” is listed as “Entertainment services in the nature of an amusement park attraction, namely, a themed area.”
• “Magic Neep” is categorized under “Restaurant services, namely, providing of food and beverages for consumption.”

Actor Dan Radcliffe is featured in UK gay magazine Attitude in the August issue.  The BBC has an article online highlighting parts of this interview, including comments on homophobia and more.  He also says:

“My dad was an agent and represented Jonathan Harvery who wrote Beautiful Thing so I grew up knowing Jonathan and his partner and it was just never an issue.  Then when you get to that age at school and someone calls you a poof, and you go, “What?”  You go, “Hold on, why is this word being used like this?”  It suddenly became really weird for me to have people around me who were homophobic.  It was a very strange, weird thing. I’ve always been around gay people.”

“I’m hopefully going to play Dan Eldon,the photojournalist who was stoned to death in Somalia.  I’ve spoken with his mother and sister and met them.  We need to make sure we get it right and do him real justice.”

Head Over to DR.com for the scans and more!

Nominations for the 2009 Teen Choice Awards have been announced, and the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince film has been given a nod in the best Summer Movie: Action/Adventure category.  The sixth Potter film has been nominated in this category along side such other summer action films as Star Trek, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Terminator Salvation, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  Voting for the 2009 Teen Choice Awards is open to US residents between the ages of 13 and 19, and runs through August 1st, 2009.  Those interested may cast up to one vote in each category daily.

Thanks Sindi!

Media reports were quick to trumpet the news that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince slipped to number two at domestic box office sales, with the new Disney film “G-Force” nabbing the top spot.  Variety reports however that HBP continues to do remarkably well both domestic and notably on the international front as the industry magazine reports: “Half-Blood Prince” remained the worldwide leader, earning a magical $84.4 million internationally for a total haul of $627.1 million. That’s the top pace for the “Potter” franchise. Domestic gross was an estimated $30 million from 4,325 runs.

The LA Times also points out that while HBP “declined 61%. 2007’s “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” which also opened on a Wednesday in July, fell 57.8% on its second weekend. As of Sunday, the total domestic gross for “Half-Blood Prince” was $221.8 million. Accounting for the 9% rise in ticket prices over the last two years, that puts it about $5 million behind “Order of the Phoenix” at the same point. The new movie does have one disadvantage, however: It’s playing at only four Imax locations, whereas “Order of the Phoenix” was at 91. The large-size screens carry higher ticket prices and tend to lose business at a slow pace.” The newspaper also reminds us that this week, Half-Blood Prince will indeed be opening on 162 IMAX screens.

Finally the newspaper says that HBP “cost $250 million to produce and about $155 million to market and distribute. Since studios keep about half of their films’ ticket sales, Warner Bros. is likely to break even on the theatrical run of “Half-Blood Prince” and profit handsomely on the DVD and in other markets.”

Okay everyone, I am leaving forever!!!!……..just kidding, I’m going to be on vacation for a few days with my family.  Going to stay at a beach house in Rhode Island, woohoo!  We are leaving tomorrow/Sunday morning and coming back late Tuesday and then I have my internship on Wednesday so I won’t be fully back until around 5 on Wednesday. For the first time EVER I am leaving my computer at home, I NEVER leave Mr. Maccy (that’s his name) at home alone for more than a day, partly because of my websites, partly because I love it.  So this will be pretty traumatic for me ;).

But never fear! You will all still get your Potter fix! I have asked my friend LadyLongbottom to help me with the news here and at Lewis Lovers and thankfully she said she would help! YAY!  So the site is in good hands and I will see you all as soon as I get back!

There will be a computer at the beach house because I am sure someone in my extended fam (there are 17 of us going) will bring one, but I can’t promise I’ll be able to get on at all, and there might not even be wireless.