Christopher Nolan Is “Very Pleased” With Warner Bros.’ Slower And Safer Release Roll Out For ‘Tenet’

One of the biggest cinematic mysteries of 2020 was whether Christopher Nolan‘s “Tenet” would finally be released in theaters, with tons of reports and rumors of pressure by the studio to release the film in as many theaters as possible even when most of the world was in quarantine.

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One person we didn’t hear much from in those early months was Nolan himself. But now that the film is out, the filmmaker told Associated Press News that he’s “very pleased” with the slower and safer release roll out for “Tenet” and thinks it’s “completely understandable and completely fine” if some audiences don’t feel ready to rush back to theaters.

In a different interview for AP, Nolan commented on the unusual release of the film. “The world we’re in right now, the concept of releasing the film absolutely everywhere for everyone to go and see on the same weekend, clearly that’s absolutely not an option for the foreseeable future,” Nolan said. “So if that pushes the industry into different ways of thinking and some of them being older distribution models, that hopefully can work.”

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Now that “Tenet” is out in US theaters following an early European release last week, CinemaScore has revealed that a poll of audiences on opening night gave the film a B rating (on a scale from F to A+). Though this is far from a death sentence, it also hints that audiences found the film to be below their expectations. Previously, the only other time a Nolan movie got a B rating was in 2002 with “Insomnia.” That being said, both “Interstellar” and “Inception” got a B+. It remains to be seen if “Tenet” follows the kind of success those two sci-fi movies got after their release.