Less than a week ago, Warner Bros. pulled Christopher Nolan’s Tenet off the release schedule on an indefinite basis, and it felt like we wouldn’t hear updates for a little while, given that the U.S. has begun to (in certain areas) rollback state reopenings. Then accordingly, AMC delayed reopening its theaters without the massive tentpole on the calendar, but it looks like Warner Bros. is forging ahead with an official global release for Nolan’s latest epic project, which stars John David Washington and Robert Pattinson.
It must be noted, however, that the new release date applies to countries other than the U.S., where selected cities will see the movie two weekends later, beginning on Labor Day weekend. Via Hollywood Reporter:
Tenet will now open first overseas in more than 70 countries starting on Aug. 26, followed by select U.S. cities on Sept. 2 in advance of the long Labor Day weekend … the major foreign territories where Tenet will open include Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Russia, Spain and the U.K. It also has a Sept. 18 release date in Japan.
One can imagine that the U.S. (where Tenet was originally scheduled for July 17) will see a highly staggered rollout for this movie, along with other tentpoles, until the pandemic subsides, either through a viable vaccine or otherwise. Major markets like New York and Los Angeles keeping their theaters shuttered will impact the box-office take, and it’s likely that Texas, Arizona, and a handful of other states won’t be opening multiplexes on Labor Day weekend. Yet clearly, Warner Bros. feels good enough about their new plan to start doing this thing for real, beginning outside of the U.S.
The arrival of Tenet, overall, has been quite a rollercoaster for audiences and everyone involved with the film, far eclipsing the intentional mystery that ordinarily surrounds a Nolan project before (and sometimes even after) release. At least, along the way, we’ve been able to enjoy interviews from noted chaos agent Robert Pattinson, who has admitted that he didn’t fully understand the movie. He may or may not have been teasing us, since his offbeat interview style goes back to him denying ever washing his hair during his Twilight days. Whereas in Tenet, his grooming is on point, and with any luck, people (again, not in the U.S.) can finally see Tenet stick a landing date.
Here’s a fresh IMAX poster ahead of Tenet‘s biggest-screen arrival.
(Via Hollywood Reporter)
