The movie business doesn’t necessarily need to revolve around the American box-office, just ask Christopher Nolan whose sci-fi epic “Tenet” was released during a pandemic and only grossed $53 million dollars domestically, but made an astounding $300 million globally in two months — prompting debates of whether it should be called a success or failure.
Nolan, speaking to the Los Angeles Times, admits that he was “thrilled” by ticket sales for “Tenet.”
“Warner Bros. released ‘Tenet,’ and I’m thrilled that it has made almost $350 million,” Nolan said. “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,” Nolan said.
Here’s the deal with “Tenet”: The two major theatrical cities in the U.S. (New York and Los Angeles), were forced to stay closed due to COVID-19 laws set forth by their respective Governors, potentially leaving millions of the dollars on the table. “Tenet” carried a budget of $200 million, not counting the many millions spent in global marketing fees — its rumored losses of $100 million have been disputed by Warners, who said it was more like $50 million.