Warner Bros. Needs 80% of Movie Theaters To Open To Release Christopher Nolan's TENET

Everyone is wondering if Warner Bros. is actually going to release Christopher Nolan’s Tenet in theaters on July 17th. Nolan has been fighting to keep the release date. He wants his film to ignite the spark of theaters reopening. Nolan is very much committed to getting movie theaters to thrive again when they open back up.

As you might imagine, the studios are all about numbers though. They want the film to be released at a time when they know that it will make some money. So, what will make it worth releasing the film in theaters for WB? According to Deadline, “solid sources hear that Warner Bros needs at least 80% of the world’s theaters to be open, including New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco (which rep 25% of a pic’s opening weekend), in order to keep Tenet on its original release date.”

As of right now, most movie theaters are looking to reopen in July, but we’ll have to wait and see how that plays out. It’s explained that “if such signs don’t appear positive in the next three weeks or sooner, Tenet moves.”

According to the report, in order to make a solid return on the $200M production, Tenet requires a domestic release of 3.5K theaters including most of the major cities, and more than 30K screens worldwide. One of the inside sources says, “None of that will be known until much closer to release.” They also add that since Nolan has 20% of Tenet‘s first-dollar gross, it “makes the need for a huge gross even greater for Warner Bros.”

I guess if Nolan wants to help some more in getting the movie released in theaters on time, he could always drop that 20% of the film’s first-dollar gross.

So, we should know for sure what WB is going to do with Tenet within the next few weeks. The studio is assessing the situation daily. If Tenet does end up moving, though, all the other release dates in the near future are expected to be shifted back as well including Mulan, Wonder Woman 1984, and more.

Movie theater exhibitors and movie fans will just have to wait for a decision to be made on Tenet. At least we know that a decision is coming soon. I really hope that Tenet holds firm, but if there’s a major spike in COVID-19 cases anytime soon, that’s not going to happen.

What would you like to see happen with Tenet? Do you think it will make the July 17th release date?