Harry Potter fans let out a gasp today when it was announced that the Harry Potter series of movies would be pulled from store shelves at the end of this year.
The final movie in this popular franchise “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Part 2” is currently available for pre-ordering, and is scheduled to be in stores starting November 11. Then, come December 29, the distributor for the series, Warner Bros., will cease sending any of the Potter movies to stores.
It appears that Warner Bros. is taking a cue from Disney, who is famous for limiting the availability of movies to certain time frames, goosing sales by announcing limited time availability, and re-releasing the films (again, for a limited time) at a later date.
The hold on distribution will not affect digital copies of the movies or video on demand. Nor will it affect Harry Potter games and books.
Speaking of books… in related news and an update to a previous story here on Consumer Press, it was announced earlier this month that Harry Potter e-books will not go on sale this month as originally planned. The e-books are expected to be available through Pottermore.com sometime in 2012, according to the creators of the site.