As the sixth instalment of the teen wizard’s adventures gears up for a global rollout on 15 July, let’s see who could end up the winners and, erm, winners

Holy Hogwarts! After a handful of highly publicised setbacks and real-life tragedy, the world is finally about to see its favourite gang of teen magicians charge up their wands and return to school in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. As the press screenings kick off today ahead of a global public launch on 15 July, now would seem as good a time as any to take stock of what we know about this sixth serving of magical mayhem and gaze into our crystal ball.

Questions abound. By all accounts director David Yates and lead producer David Heyman have maintained a happy atmosphere on Project Potter despite the murder of cast member Rob Knox (Marcus Belby) outside a nightclub in 2008 and the studio’s ultimately unsuccessful intellectual property infringement lawsuit against the Punjabi producers of Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors. But will moviegoing muggles forgive Warner Brothers for making Harry and chums vanish from last autumn’s releasing schedule and postponing the release until now? And does that poorly-received Chicago test screening last spring spell trouble for Harry’s box-office prospects?

How will audiences respond?

They’ll turn up. In droves. All but the most churlish fans will forgive the studio for delaying the release until the more profitable summer season, but you can bet there’ll be a collective cry of “Expelliarmus!” if the subject matter isn’t handled properly. The main gripe from the Chicago test audience was that the storyline was a bit soppy. Yates has happily confessed to this episode’s strong romcom tone. Let’s face it: gazillions of young fans are already going weak at the knees over those upcoming clinches between Harry and Ginny Weasley and Ron and Lavender Brown. Word is there will be other changes (SPOILER ALERT), including an attack on the Weasley household that wasn’t in the book.

Is this Yates chap up to the task?

Hello? Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was a mesmerising, monochromatic mashup between the forces of good and evil that became the second highest grossing movie in the series on $938m (£571.4m). Not bad for what’s only your second feature film. Yates has talent to burn, as they say in talent-burning circles, and earned his stripes on the TV series State of Play and Sex Traffic. Considering Half-Blood Prince is arguably the best book in the series, he’s got plenty of great source material to play with. Warner clearly loves the Briton and signed him to do the rest of the series – the studio wouldn’t entrust the Potter franchise to just any old hack.

So will Half-Blood Prince make loads of dosh?

Oh come on, is this in any doubt? Warner moved the movie to July 2009 because it didn’t have a potential blockbuster scheduled for the summer. It does now. Collectively, the previous five Harry Potter movies have sold roughly $4.5bn (£2.7bn) in tickets around the world, rising to about $7.2bn (£4.4bn) when you add in DVD sales, according to a recent report in the Los Angeles Times. The average Harry Potter movie has sold $896m (£546m) in tickets worldwide and this one could be the biggest of the lot. At any rate this will be one of the biggest movies of 2009, if not the biggest.

What about the competition?

Read my lips. There will be no competition. Up has come down. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will have done most of its damage by 15 July. Brüno should be entering its second weekend on a roll, but do you really think the Austrian provocateur has a chance of getting on top of Harry? Don’t think so. There’ll be a few counter-programming movies knocking around in the weeks after Harry Potter comes out – in other words alternative genres for those who care little for the antics of lovelorn teenage conjurors – but nothing on the Hagrid-like scale of Half-Blood Prince.

Can Warner keep the franchise going forever?

You mean something like Harry Potter and the Convenient Prequel? The studio should be so lucky. As almost the entire population on the planet knows, there are only seven books in the series. The studio pulled a fast one when it announced it was splitting Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final instalment, into two parts. Something to do with doing justice to the complexity of the story, I think the execs said. Cue uproarious laughter. Oh, that was a good one. The first part will come out on 19 November 2010, and the final episode is scheduled to be in a cinema near you on 15 July 2011.

I bet a certain other wizard will be relieved when it’s all over?

Ah yes, Gandalf. You can’t blame him for feeling a fair amount of staff envy. One minute you’re the main magic man and next you’re tugging irritably on your pipe as Dumbledore steals your thunder to become the most beloved senior conjuror in all the known worlds. What’s that you say? There can be only one? Hang on a minute, surely there’s room for two great wizards? Dumbledore will be around for a few more years and Gandalf will get at least one more outing in Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming Hobbit projects. There. See? Peaceful coexistence.