Christopher Nolan Talks “TENET” Release with Los Angeles Times

The LA Times spoke with Christopher Nolan and Tom Shone in relation to Shone’s new retrospective book on Nolan “The Nolan Variations: The Movies, Mysteries, and Marvels of Christopher Nolan”. Here’s what Christopher Nolan had to say about the current release of Tenet:

It is, though, an argument for taking movies seriously. And it’s out in a moment when the film business is facing existential challenges because of COVID-19. How do you see the outlook for movies?

…

Nolan: Well, it’s a difficult question to speak to. If you’re talking about the acceleration of existing trends, that’s something I started reading right at the beginning of the pandemic. And it ignores the reality that 2019 was the biggest year for theatrical films in history. They’d made the most money. The admissions were huge. So to me, it’s much more about: What’s the new reality we’re living in?

Warner Bros. released “Tenet,” and I’m thrilled that it has made almost $350 million. But I am worried that the studios are drawing the wrong conclusions from our release — that rather than looking at where the film has worked well and how that can provide them with much needed revenue, they’re looking at where it hasn’t lived up to pre-COVID expectations and will start using that as an excuse to make exhibition take all the losses from the pandemic instead of getting in the game and adapting — or rebuilding our business, in other words.

Long term, moviegoing is a part of life, like restaurants and everything else. But right now, everybody has to adapt to a new reality.

Although some are saying that the US release may be considered a failure, Box Office Pro reports the following:

“Warner Bros.’ TENET registered its first domestic weekend under $1 million, earning $885k from 1,601 locations. The Christopher Nolan thriller is the top-grossing new release in North America since the pandemic with $53.8 million. … Internationally TENET earned $3.3 million from 62 markets over the weekend, including a $277k debut in Brazil (1,000 screens). Top global markets for the title include China ($66.5M), North America ($53.8M), Japan ($24.1M), UK ($22.7M), and France ($22.5M).”

Tenet’s international box office is USD293 million giving it a total of USD346.8 million. To check out previous box office head to our roundup HERE.

To read the full LA Times article click on the link above.