Christopher Nolan Is Making a Mistake With Tenet
Christopher Nolan loves cinemas. So much so that even during a global coronavirus pandemic, the London-born 50-year-old filmmaker has been insistent that Tenet — his epic time-bending espionage movie, akin to a sci-fi Bond film — will only release in theatres. Even though many cinemas aren't operational. And the ones that are, are working under severe restrictions. Like most other big-budgeted productions slated for 2020, Tenet has been delayed multiple times due to the pandemic. But unlike other movies, which have been delayed for months or even a year, Tenet's release date has been pushed just 40 days in all. Nolan has been determined to get Tenet into theatres ASAP.
After weekend previews in select countries, Tenet is finally set to kick off its theatrical rollout on Wednesday. It will open in over 70 markets by the end of this week, including Nolan's second home in the UK, in addition to major countries such Australia, France, Germany, Korea, and Spain. And in the first week of September, it will release in the US and China, the two biggest box office markets of the world. Those'll be followed by Russia and Japan later in September. Warner Bros. wasn't always in favour of a staggered release. In fact, insiders say that the studio wanted Tenet to release everywhere — including India — at the same time, fearful of piracy.
Nolan seems to have been able to allay Warner Bros.' concerns, but that doesn't mean the piracy threat is gone. Tenet is an event in itself, a $200-million-movie (about Rs. 1,500 crores) stemming from an original idea — a rare breed in Hollywood. And Nolan is one of the last directors who's able to pull in massive audiences on the basis of his own name. “The director of The Dark Knight Trilogy. Inception. Interstellar. Dunkirk.” The last of those — Dunkirk — Nolan's World War II drama about a specific act of British heroism made over $500 million (about Rs. 3,700 crores). That's unheard of in today's climate. What that means is that a lot of people will want to watch Tenet.