‘Tenet’ Would Apparently Need to Make a Fortune to Break Even
By George Robbins
Movies are in a little bit of trouble at the moment due to the most recent surge in coronavirus cases and it appears that this isn’t likely to change any time soon. The moment that the initial spike in cases was announced, many films pushed back their releases dates with some at the end of the year being moved to some time next year. These changes are evident that it just isn’t safe for studios to release their movies in the current climate that we have found ourselves in. If they were to try and release their films now, it would only spell ruin for the company. Thus we now have the information that the newest movies are going to keep getting pushed back in an effort for them to try and make the most amount of money back possible.
The problem as of late is that the number of new cases just keeps increasing which is, in turn, pushing state officials to possibly shut down their states again. This has just been done in California again because the number of new cases there was so high and this also means that all non-essential businesses there have yet again been shut down. Thus the news is relatively grim for businesses like movie theaters that have had no choice but continue keeping their doors shut anyway. Without new content, many theaters, mostly theater chains, have had no choice but to keep their doors shut because it would not be cost-efficient. This is why we currently have theater reopenings chasing down movie releases.
One of the releases that is really trying to be the first movie available in theaters when they open their doors back up again is the movie ‘Tenet.’ Director Christopher Nolan has been advocating and pushing the studio to release his film as soon as they possibly can. The film was originally scheduled for release on July 17th but has since had to be changed to the middle of August. Even this change in dates has not exactly been cemented because the number of new Covid-19 cases keeps rising and it has many studios on edge. On top of this, they also want to make sure that when it does get into theaters, that the theaters aren’t immediately going to shut down and that people will actually go out to theaters. If no one goes out to watch the film, then they are massively “in the hole,” so to speak.
According to a recent report, just to break even on how much money was spent on the production and marketing of ‘Tenet,’ the movie would have to make $800 million. It is no wonder that the studio is being cautious about the release, but it may just be a massive loss on their part. According to some they cannot keep pushing back the release of the film but if they release the film and everything shuts down or isn’t even open to begin with, then they are going to have an even bigger issue. They need a good time frame to release their film where they know people will be able to go out to the movies and a majority of theaters will be open at least. They have about a month now to decide what they will do, so hopefully they come up with some solution, otherwise they are going to be in trouble.