TENET Indefinitely Delayed

[Jim Cassedy]

Christopher Nolan’s ‘Tenet’ Delays August Release

Warner Bros. has removed “Tenet” from its release calendar, delivering a big blow on
the exhibition industry at a time when movie theaters had hoped to peg their re-opening
to the late summer debut of Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi thriller.

Though necessary given the mass uncertainty over when cinemas across the globe can
safely reopen, the decision further complicates Hollywood’s already bumpy plan to revive
moviegoing. “Tenet” was originally scheduled to debut on July 17 but was pushed back
twice until Aug. 12. It’s unclear when it will now welcome audiences, but the studio plans
to share a new release date “imminently.”

“We will share a new 2020 release date imminently for Tenet, Christopher Nolan’s wholly
original and mind-blowing feature,” said Warner Bros. chairman Toby Emmerich in a statement.
“We are not treating Tenet like a traditional global day-and-date release, and our upcoming
marketing and distribution plans will reflect that.”

The studio also announced that “The Conjuring 3” has been postponed to June 4, 2021. The
eighth entry in Warner Bros.’ horror franchise was schedule to debut in theaters on Sept. 11.
However, “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” was supposed to have additional shoots
scheduled for April. Since production across the globe hasn’t been able to resume, it wouldn’t
be ready in time for its target release date.

“Our goals throughout this process have been to ensure the highest odds of success for our
films while also being ready to support our theater partners with new content as soon as they
could safely reopen,” Emmerich said. “We’re grateful for the support we’ve received from
exhibitors and remain steadfast in our commitment to the theatrical experience around the world.
Unfortunately, the pandemic continues to proliferate, causing us to reevaluate our release dates.”

Sources at Warner Bros. stress that they will have to be flexible with its plans to release “Tenet,”
which means it will not have a traditional theatrical rollout. Movie theaters overseas have already
started to reopen, so there’s a chance it could launch internationally prior to a domestic release.
That would be welcome news for exhibitors in Europe and Asia, two robust moviegoing markets
that haven’t had a new Hollywood movie to entice audiences in months. In their plans to reopen,
movie theater owners recently expressed concern to Variety that the global box office has all but
been “forgotten” by U.S. studios. Previous films from Nolan have earned more than 50% of box
office revenues from theaters overseas.

While most studios have postponed their major movies into late 2020 or 2021 and beyond, Nolan
has high hopes that “Tenet” can usher audiences back to theaters, which have been closed since
March to help stop the spread of coronavirus. For that reason, Warner Bros. had previously decided
to incrementally move “Tenet” back weeks at a time, rather than postpone it to a significant degree
until cinemas across the country are able to safety reopen. Now, insiders at Warner Bros. say they
could move forward in select U.S. cities where cases of the virus have eased and public health and
government officials deem it safe.

[ END ]

[Randy Stankey]

If they are going to have a graduated rollout in select cities, why don’t they give the movie multiple endings that play differently in each place?

Since movies are played on computers, now, it might be possible to play a different ending each time the program is shown.

That might stimulate repeat business as people watch multiple showings in order to see all the endings.

Hopefully, that might give movie theaters a little economic boost in the face of this virus disaster.

[Matt McBride]

That would be an interesting concept. They did it before with Clue from the 80s. Though with that I think different theaters got different ending reels, right? I wonder how much extra revenue was gained with people trying to see all three ending of it.

[Mike Blakesley]

They did it before with Clue from the 80s. Though with that I think different theaters got different ending reels, right?

Yes, which was a pain in the butt for exhibition because people would think they could come back the next night and see a different ending, which didn't happen (as far as I know). That was before the days when complexes played the same movie in a dozen different auditoriums, so most places got one, or at most two, of the endings. Single screens only got one, of course.

I was wishing they'd send each theater all three endings. That way you could schedule them for people who wanted to see all three and get three ticket sales. Why irritate people by making them guess and potentially waste their money?

But back to Tenet .... that sucks, but I'm completely unsurprised. I like their idea of rolling it out to places that could open. We could start showing it next weekend, unless we get a flare-up in cases thanks to our county fair, which was held last weekend in a limited format.

[Terry Monohan]

I guess we can forget Tenet playing in 70mm film as It was shot.

[Randy Stankey]

Yes, I had thought about “Clue.”

However, with DCP, it ought to be possible to put all the endings into one package and select which one gets shown using different playlists. Right?

Further, since it’s all computerized, shouldn’t it be possible to have some sort of script that chooses the endings either at random or according to a prearranged schedule? (e.g. all three endings in rotation.)

Personally, I believe that a movie is a complete work, by itself. Having multiple endings kind of spoils the mood, for me.

But, then, again... Kids, these days...

[Marcel Birgelen]

Yes, you could make multiple CPLs for the feature, which replace the last "reel" or "reels" with a different ending. Scripting stuff in such way that you randomly schedule one of those features is another problem though, I wouldn't know how to do it on either GDC, Dolby, Doremi and Alchemy servers. Maybe, if you have access to an TMS API, you could do something like this via an external machine. Yet, as for now, he/she who schedules the show would be "the randomizer".

But yeah, I also don't really like the multiple endings concept. I remember Black Mirror: Bandersnatch as a recent release of one of those interactive movies and I didn't like that concept either. But, maybe it's a gimmick that helps to revitalize moviegoing.

I guess we can forget Tenet playing in 70mm film as It was shot.

I'd say that by kicking the can further down the road, the chance of a few 70mm prints materializing and actually being shown will increase somewhat.

[Randy Stankey]

I figured that automating the playlist would be more of a thought experiment than anything else, really.
Something that would be cool if you could do it, but nothing lost if you couldn’t.

I suppose it would be better to let theaters choose which ending they want to show because they could market which showings have what ending. (A new ending each week, for instance.)

Yeah, I miss 70mm. If it was playing in 70mm I’d probably see it even if I had to make a minor pilgrimage. As it is, I probably never will see it. Not even on Netflix. Digipix really don’t interest me.

[Matt McBride]

Personally, I believe that a movie is a complete work, by itself.

I agree as well, unless of course there is a whole saga through out multiple movies. I never saw Clue in theaters, but I would probably been frustrated with the multiple ending concept. In fact, I actually like how they did it for the home release, that has all three ending and proposed "this is how it could've happened" etc.

I'm a pretty big Nolan fan and ever since he started having 70mm prints made, whether they were 5/70 or 15/70, I've always tried to go see them in that format. My wife and I never got around to seeing his last movie even in theaters however.

[Benjamin Ruder]

The Music Box in Chicago is currently showing 70mm to audiences of 50 people (max attendance). Tenet should open as film only.

[Mitchell Dvoskin]

In 1966, when almost all theatres ran reel to reel, Andy Warhol made a film called The Chelsea Girls made with the intention that the projectionist should run the reels in a different order for each showing. The reels were structured in such a manner that the film would make sense no matter what order the reels were run.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Back in 2004, we did a pre-screening of Hidalgo. Someone totally mixed up the reels before we got them and we didn't have the time to QC the movie. I don't even remember what exactly got mixed up, but at least the first and last reel seemed to match up. I watched the movie as part of the audience and once the third reel hit, it was instantly clear to me stuff was mixed up, but there wasn't much we could do. We explained what happened to the audience at the end of the show while handing out vouchers. Still a lot of people could make perfect sense of the movie...