Who could have predicted that the fate of the entire film industry would rest on Christopher Nolan? Turns out, 2020 still has plenty of surprises in store, because everyone has eyes on “Tenet” and whether or not the film will hit its July 17 release date or get pushed back. While Warner Bros. hasn’t yet decided what to do with the release date, the studio reportedly needs a very modest 80% of the world’s theaters to be open if the blockbuster is to be released in July.
According to a report by Deadline, Warner Bros. is hoping that movie theaters in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco open by July in order to justify releasing “Tenet” as originally intended, as the three cities account for 25% of a movie’s opening weekend box office. Though a few European territories are already opening up theaters, albeit at a limited capacity, this is far from the 80% that Warner Bros. needs. Even if all those theaters do open, it will be a long while before they run at full capacity or with as many screenings per day as before the pandemic. And according to the report, Warner Bros. is not planning to release the film at different dates, fearing spoilers about the time-twisting thriller will spread like wildfire.
So what happens if Warner Bros. doesn’t get the number of theaters they want open by July? According to the report, everything in the near future slides. “Tenet” would take the August 14 release date of “Wonder Woman 1984,” with the superhero movie then taking up the December date of Denis Villeneuve‘s “Dune.”
Another problem that will arise whether or not the film opens in July is how the studio will choose to market it. The longer Warner Bros. waits to make a decision, the less time they have to figure out a marketing campaign, especially under a pandemic that has fewer people driving and therefore looking at billboards, or watching suspended sports matches.
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Whatever the future holds for Nolan’s “Tenet,” we can at least be reassured that the movie will be worth the wait. According to Deadline‘s report, the movie “is as amazing as ‘Inception.'”