Warner Bros. has delayed the release of Christopher Nolan's Tenet for the second time. At the beginning of 2020, Tenet was eyed as one of the most highly-anticipated movies of the year. The new Nolan production was shrouded in secrecy with varying reports about what the plot might contain, while John David Washington and Robert Pattinson as the leads only increased excitement among fans. Tenet had a mid-July release date at first and the movie became the centerpiece of when theaters could reopen.
After holding onto the original July 17th date for quite some time, Warner Bros. finally decided to delay Tenet a couple weeks ago. The decision came after the second trailer dropped for Nolan's blockbuster and marketing continued to ramp up since then. But, instead of delaying Tenet a few months, WB elected to push the film back two weeks and give it a new July 31st release date. Now, as positive tests for coronavirus are surging across America, Tenet's release date has changed again.
As shared by THR, Warner Bros. has delayed Tenet for the second time. The film's new release date is Wednesday, August 12, so Tenet has only moved back another two weeks from the previous date and about a month overall from when it was originally slated to come out. The studio also issued this statement about their decision and strategy for Tenet's theatrical release:
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. 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.
The decision to delay Tenet again comes on the heels of New York announcing that theaters will not be able to reopen as part of Phase 4 of the reopening plan. As one of the largest markets in the country, Tenet's inability to play in New York would only have made the film's box office performance even more of an uphill battle. But, since there is no timetable available for when the majority of theaters across America and the rest of the world will be open, delaying Tenet just two more weeks very well force WB to delay Nolan's movie again if things don't improve.
Although an extra two weeks might not make that big of a difference in regards to the state of the movie theater industry, the statement issued by WB is further evidence that they plan to keep Tenet in theaters and not make it a VOD option. The decision to release the movie on a Wednesday instead of the typical Friday appears to play into WB's hope that Tenet will be a long-term box office performer. The mid-week launch will further soften the opening numbers at the box office, but it sounds like Tenet will be in theaters well beyond the traditional three-month run. That strategy could work for Tenet if it is as talked about as some of Nolan's past films, even if it ultimately doesn't keep this new August release date.
Source: THR