Christopher Nolan’s Tenet has been a big temperature check for Hollywood in the age of COVID-19. Would the time-bending thriller be a hit despite closed theaters, social distancing and record unemployment? Obviously, the movie wouldn’t rake in the big bucks that Dunkirk or Inception did, but could it generate a hefty gross despite the woes of the world? Warner Brothers sure as hell hoped so.
After much delay, Tenet was officially released in North America during the week of September 4. It was released in select markets, areas where local ordinances allowed theaters to be open. In its first weekend, WB reported that the film brought in $20 million. That’s not an amazing number but, all things considered, it was a good start for a film released in the midst of a pandemic.
Well, turns out it was too good to be true. Tenet didn’t really make $20 million in its opening session. It actually brought in only $9 million between Friday and Saturday of its debut weekend. WB originally said it garnered $20 million because it was counting the money earned during weekday previews and the long Labor Day weekend. This last weekend, the movie made $6.7 million, a 29% drop from its initial box office haul.
One can understand why WB would use inflated numbers, they don’t want people to call Tenet a bomb. But that’s silly because I don’t think anyone is going to harp on the film for making far, far less than other Nolan films. Everyone knows why Tenet isn’t burning up the box office. No one is going to fault the movie for performing poorly due to everything that’s going on. WB’s sneaky move to misrepresent the film’s box office earnings is shady and dishonest and does far more PR damage than just being open about the film’s gross. They should have released a statement saying, “Yeah, Tenet only made $9 million this weekend but it’s going to make $20 million by the end of Labor Day and, given what’s going on, we’re quite happy with that.” Instead they were fishy about their numbers and now the whole situation feels staged.
Internationally, Tenet has grossed $177,500,000, which means the film’s total stands at $207,000,000. I know, I know, the movie needs to make about $450,000,000 to turn a profit but that may be out of reach. We are living in a new era and, right now, $207,000,000 ain’t too bad. With only 70% of American theaters open (San Francisco, LA and New York are still closed) and the rest of the world still dealing with various stages of this pandemic, $207 million ain’t too bad at all. WB just needs to be honest about what’s going on.
With these revealed true numbers for Tenet, you can see why Warners pushed Wonder Woman 1984 back to December. It’s obvious that the re-opening of American theaters is going to be a slow process. It’ll be awhile before multiplexes are robust and lively again.