Harry Potter movie sequel delayed -- why?

Warner Bros. -- a division of Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) -- made the surprising announcement that it's delaying the release of the sixth installment in the Harry Potter saga: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Price.

The release is being pushed back from November 11 of 2008 to July 17 of 2009. Warner Bros. President Alan Horn blamed the writers' strike, saying that "We agreed the best strategy was to move 'Half-Blood Prince' to July, where it perfectly fills the gap for a major tentpole release for mid-summer."

I'm not convinced -- isn't it a little close to the previously scheduled opening for the writers' strike that ended on February 12 to be the reason? Pali Research analyst Rich Greenfield wrote that "We believe TWX is shifting the film to help it achieve earnings expectations in 2008 (moving expensive P & A out of Q4 2008, at the same time that several successful films are set to hit DVD for Warner)."

If that's the case, investors should be concerned. Any time that a company starts messing with its operations in order to improve short-term earnings reports, you have a situation where long-term objectives could be neglected in favor of satisfying Wall Street expectations. In the long run, such a strategy will neither please Wall Street nor set the stage for long-term growth.