Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” has been pushed — again — and will now open on August 12 instead of July 31.
Initially, the film was set to open on July 17, but was pushed back to July 31 earlier this month due to the coronavirus. In its place, Warner Bros. said it would re-release a special 10th anniversary edition of Nolan’s “Inception” that will also include a sneak peek of “Tenet.” The “Inception” anniversary release will now move to July 31 as well.
“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. “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.”
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic that left studios shuffling schedules, bumping back release dates by months and moving other movies to solely digital releases, “Tenet” had been one of the longest holdouts, having stuck to its July 17 release date since the beginning. The film even debuted a new trailer advertising that date in the video game “Fortnite” last month.
Theater chains too had used the opening of “Tenet” as something of a target for when theaters could reopen and when they could expect audiences to return for studio, blockbuster fare.
The move doesn’t come as a surprise, however, as coronavirus cases have spiked in recent days. With New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently announcing that movie theaters would not be part of the state’s Phase 4 reopening, and with cases in Los Angeles surging, the $200-million film was going to lose out on two of the biggest moviegoing markets. And while movie theaters have pressed ahead with their reopening plans, many fans have expressed concern with heading back to theaters.
“Tenet” stars John David Washington in Nolan’s latest original, sci-fi action film, as he’s gifted with the ability to experience time through something called “inversion,” though what he experiences is not time travel. He embarks on a fight to save the world in an international espionage mission that unfolds in something beyond real-time. The film also stars Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine and Kenneth Branagh.
Russell Crowe’s “Unhinged” and Sony’s “The Broken Hearts Gallery,” are still expected to open in theaters on July 10 and July 17, respectively.