The Tenet release date will reportedly be delayed. Throughout the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Christopher Nolan's upcoming film has been the most notable outlier in Hollywood. A majority of the movies originally scheduled to come out over the past few months were either pushed back or went straight to streaming, but Tenet has stayed put in its mid-July window. The prevailing hope is it can be the first major studio tentpole to welcome audiences back to the theater, but there's still no guarantee that can happen. For weeks, some have expected Tenet to be moved.
In late May, Warner Bros. released a new Tenet trailer, which made no mention of the film's release date. It ended with a title card that only read "Coming to Theaters." That gave people the impression the studio was weighing a possible Tenet delay as they continue to monitor the situation. Officially, the film remains slated for July, but based on the latest information, a change appears to be imminent.
Per Collider, Tenet is going to be delayed, and WB is currently in the process of figuring out where to put it before announcing anything. That's proven to be difficult due to the number of high-profile titles slotted for this fall and winter.
Most would agree it makes sense for Tenet to be pushed back. The health crisis is still an extremely fluid situation with a number of unknown variables. Plus, as states slowly begin to reopen, there's a realistic possibility there will be an increase in new cases in some areas. As much as everyone would like to go see Tenet on the big screen in July, the risk is very high and there's no need to rush this when safety is still a major issue. When the COVID-19 outbreak took a turn for the worse in March, Tenet's release date seemed like it was far off, but as of this writing it's only six weeks away. If WB is indeed going to delay Tenet, they need to finalize a plan in the very near future - particularly so theaters expecting to play Tenet in July can adjust.
As for where Tenet moves, that remains to be seen. Some expect a Tenet delay to have a massive domino effect on Hollywood, meaning there would be no new theatrical releases until Christmas. That would mean Tenet may not take Wonder Woman 1984's August date, but it could slide into Dune's December window. A December premiere would make sense for a $200 million investment like Tenet, since traditionally the holiday season is particularly lucrative for moviegoing. That said, nothing about this year has been normal, so it'll ultimately be interesting to see where WB chooses to release Tenet - and if the new date sticks.
Source: Collider
