UPDATED: It looks as though the numbers were far greater than we could have even imagined. Estimates are now at a $53 million weekend overseas for Nolan’s “Tenet.” This, without including Canada’s numbers since they count via “domestic” grossing stateside, as they part of the North American cumulative.
The UK numbers ($7.1M) are quite something, especially when you realize that this was accomplished during a pandemic — in comparison, “Inception” opened to 9M in the UK, Interstellar 8M, and Dunkirk 13M. You can also expect it to have long-running legs as more and more people start to feel comfortable going back to the cinema in the weeks and months to come.
Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” may have just revived the struggling theatrical business overseas with a Wednesday-Sunday opening of $40M+ and that’s not including Canadian numbers, which are set to be revealed on Sunday.
According to Deadline, close to 40 offshore markets have released “Tenet” this past week/weekend. Although cinemas are operating under capacity restrictions, “Tenet” is being shown on multiple screens as there isn’t any other competition being released, safe for more lower-tier titles such as “Unhinged” and “The New Mutants.” The top markets, where “Tenet” made the most money seem to be South Korea, the UK, Italy, and Australia. “Tenet” will be released in the U.S. on September 3rd, this will likely determine if we'll see more films being released theatrically in the fall, especially “Wonder Woman 1984,” “Dune” “No Time to Die,” and “Black Widow.”
I reported earlier in the week that “Tenet” was beating ticket pre-sales in the U.S. of previous Nolan titles such as “Interstellar” and “Dunkirk.” Of course, “Tenet” won’t necessarily have a bigger opening weekend than those two films since the two biggest film markets (New York, Los Angeles) won’t have their theaters reopening on time for the film’s September 3rd release date. For shame.
However, most Americans buying tickets for “Tenet” seem to stem from the Southern regions of the U.S., as those states are accounting for 45% of the ticket sales in the country. Despite all that, “Tenet” is projected to get an opening weekend in the $35-50 million range.