'Tenet' Delayed Until August

Due to the global pandemic and worries about ticket sales and attendance, Tenet has now been delayed until August 12th. 

Yes, Tenet has been delayed before. Warner Bros. originally set the film's release for July 17th, where they wanted it to become the first major Hollywood tentpole to open in theaters. But as a precaution, the studio pushed the movie to July 31st earlier this month to give theaters two additional weeks to perfect new safety protocols.

Well, in that amount of time Americans refused to wear masks and ruined the possibility to see Christopher Nolan's new movie next month. Cases are spiking all over our country and still lingering across the rest of the globe. 

So the movie has been held until we can see it safely. Which they hope is now August 12th. 

“Warner Bros. is committed to bringing ‘Tenet’ to audiences in theaters, on the big screen, when exhibitors are ready and public health officials say it’s time,” a Warner Bros. spokesperson said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “In this moment what we need to be is flexible, and we are not treating this as a traditional movie release. We are choosing to open the movie mid-week to allow audiences to discover the film in their own time, and we plan to play longer, over an extended play period far beyond the norm, to develop a very different yet successful release strategy.”

No word in the idea of what happens if cases continue to rise, which at this point seems likely as states like Florida are reporting record numbers with New York and California not far behind. These are major movie-going metropolises and if their numbers do not go down, you will not see a movie like Tenet hit theaters. 

The cost of re-advertising and promoting will make it difficult for this film to turn a profit. I wonder what the number needs to be before WB just puts it on HBO Max? I doubt that happens anytime soon though. Blockbusters like this rely on international ticket sales as well as the US Box Office to make cash. The more likely scenario is that the rest of the world gets it many months before the United States. 

Which would suck. 

Only time will tell.