Potter Imax Delay Causes Universal Pant Wetting Among Investors

THR is reporting that the recent announcement that harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince will not be coming to Imax screens until two weeks after it makes its way to the little big screens has caused a panic amongst investors.

Shares of Imax dropped 4% on Monday to $7.31 after a Wall Street analyst said the delay “should negatively impact Imax boxoffice results.”

“Prince” opens wide July 14. Although it opens on two Imax screens that day — one in New York and one in Los Angeles — it won’t get the wide Imax treatment until July 29.

The two-week delay is fallout from the decision by Warner Bros. to push “Potter” from its originally scheduled November 2008 opening. The new July opening overlaps with Imax’s monthlong window dedicated to Paramount’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”

Still, “Potter” contains 12 minutes of 3-D footage that moviegoers can experience only through Imax, so that could cushion the blow, Merriman Curhan Ford analyst Eric Wold said.