By We must be entering the Twilight Zone period of history because it seems like director Christopher Nolan is living in a different universe when it comes to Tenet’s box office. Speaking with the Los Angeles Times in promotion of an upcoming retrospective novel on his career, Nolan stated that he was “thrilled” with the worldwide gross that Tenet has earned since release.
“Warner Bros. released Tenet, and I’m thrilled that it has made almost $350 million,” Nolan said. “But I am worried that the studios are drawing the wrong conclusions from our release…they’re looking at where it hasn’t lived up to pre-COVID expectations and will start using that as an excuse to make exhibition take all the losses from the pandemic instead of getting in the game and adapting.”
Oddly, I agree with him here, but there really isn’t much else the studios could have done. With the theater market so heavily dependent on New York City and Los Angeles, it’s almost like going to the theater doesn’t matter if you aren’t living in two specific areas. Overseas, Tenet fared far better and managed to gross around $293 million. Domestically, though, the United States has pretty much outgrown the need for specific theatrical runs.
Nolan’s not completely huffing his own gasses, though. “Long term, moviegoing is a part of life, like restaurants and everything else. But right now, everybody has to adapt to a new reality,” he conceded. That seems to be the strategy Hollywood is adopting, pushing major films back into late 2021 (or later) while supplementing the dead time with releases on VOD. That will likely be our reality until everything can safely reopen.
Source: LA Times
