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Image source: Wall Street Journal
When Christopher Nolan’s multi-million dollar thriller “Tenet” opened in movie theaters throughout the United States on Labor Day weekend, many hoped that the film would be a sign that the film industry was ready to bounce back after months of dwindling sales. When the COVID-19 pandemic forced the majority of the nation’s movie theaters to be closed, most of the industry’s films had to be pushed back extensively, receiving new release dates that were months later than what was originally intended (and that’s just for films that even got new release dates). While “Tenet” was no exception at first, having been initially set for a July release, director Christopher Nolan insisted that his film receive a theatrical release as soon as possible, believing his work would be the one big event that would draw audiences back to theaters and revitalize the industry. The film’s distributor, Warner Brothers, would ultimately agree to Nolan’s requests, and on Labor Day weekend, as many states began to allow their theaters to reopen, “Tenet” finally got to shine on the big screen for everyone to see in all of its grand cinematic glory.
There was just one problem: not enough people were coming out to see the film.
On its opening weekend, “Tenet”, screened in just over 2,800 theaters, earned just over $20 million in ticket sales. While this was a significantly larger total than any film screened at the time, it was nowhere near enough to begin to earn back the film’s budget, estimated to be roughly $200 million (not counting marketing costs). There was some hope that the film would hold strong in the following weeks as more theaters reopened, but a 66% drop in revenue the next weekend proves that this is currently not likely to happen. Its most recent weekend of release saw a gross of $3.4 million, enough to keep it as #1 at the box office, but still hardly anything to appreciate. At the moment, “Tenet” has earned just over $41 million at the domestic box office, twice what it made in its opening weekend but still a fraction of what was spent to produce it.
Fortunately, “Tenet” has had slightly better luck with overseas markets, which have boosted its total worldwide gross to just under $285 million dollars. Unfortunately, while these numbers might appear to cover the film’s $200 million budget, they are not enough to overcome the additional millions of dollars spent on marketing, nor do they reflect the percentages of the revenue being split between the studio and theaters. In order for “Tenet” to turn a profit, it would need to have a final gross of anywhere between $500-750 million, an amount that the film is not expected to acquire any time soon.
Why are numbers so low for “Tenet” despite all the hype and anticipation surrounding it? There are several reasons, but most of them can be connected to the fact that the pandemic has not yet come to an end. For one thing, social distancing procedures have limited the number of people that can watch a film on the big screen at a given time, with auditoriums being restricted to at most 50% capacity. Perhaps more significant, however, is the fact that most people aren’t ready to go back to the movies yet. Even with all the new health and safety procedures put into effect, most audiences don’t feel the risk is worth it at the moment, choosing instead to stay home and get their fill from streaming services and other sources of in-home movie watching.
The underperformance of “Tenet”, combined with that of Disney’s “Mulan” (which had been released for the price of $30 through premium on-demand viewing on its streaming platform Disney+), has sent shockwaves throughout the film industry, forcing studios to once again push their films back until they believe it is safe to release them. Warner Brother’s next big-budget blockbuster, “Wonder Woman 1984”, has been delayed until the Christmas season, and Disney has pushed back the majority of its films to next year. At the moment, the next big releases expected to hit the big screen are the next installment in the James Bond series “No Time to Die” and the animated Pixar film “Soul”. Both are planned to come out in November, though given the ongoing pandemic (and the resurgence of cases in many nations), many speculate that they will also be delayed once again.
The lack of any major releases is a serious problem for movie theaters. With so little revenue coming in, and expenses ranging from labor, rent, and supplies being just as high as they had been before the start of the pandemic, theaters are struggling to maintain a profit, and unless things take a turn sooner than later, then there’s a strong possibility that many theaters will go out of business and have to close permanently. Had theaters remained closed and continued to do so until there was a clear end to the pandemic, then they might have better luck in reducing expenses and even negotiating how much rent they are paying to landowners. However, that’s not the case, and at the moment, no major theater chain has announced any intention to change tactics and close their theaters until it’s safe to reopen them again.
What can be done then to keep theaters from completely going under? At the moment, not much. While screenings of classic films have performed modestly (a re-release of “The Empire Strikes Back” currently sits in the Top 5 at box office) and could be effective in drawing in those who want to experience the big screen with something they are familiar with, they are not enough to make up for the costs theaters are currently paying. Only a certain number of big, highly anticipated releases will encourage people to start going to the movies once again, but for the time being, no such films will be shown any time soon. Of course, most of this may have been avoided if Christopher Nolan hadn’t pushed for “Tenet” to be the big screen event of the summer, allowing theaters to stay closed for as long as necessary. It’s ironic: in his efforts to save the theatrical experience, Christopher Nolan may have damaged it even further.
