[VIDEO] Tenet, first Hollywood post-COVID-19 release in US, takes $20m

[MenInG]

Tenet, the first major Hollywood release in six months since the coronavirus pandemic delayed shoots and closed cinemas, has grossed $20.2m in its opening five days in the United States.

Such box office takings for an expected blockbuster that cost $200m to make would usually be a concern for Warner Bros, which is the film's distributorm but the company said it was "very pleased" with the initial response to the film from director Christopher Nolan.

The US release has been timed for the usually busy Labor Day weekend, and

"There is literally no context in which to compare the results of a film opening during a pandemic with any other circumstance," Warner Bros said in a statement. "We are in unprecedented territory."

The highly-anticipated release was postponed several times as a result of the pandemic, and only went on general release in the US on Wednesday, showing at about 28,000 cinemas. About 65-70 percent of multiplexes in the country have reopened.

“With a significant number of key US states and cities still closed, this is a fair opening,” said David A. Gross, a box office analyst at FranchiseRe. “Business in the US is improving, but large numbers of moviegoers are not back yet. For now, this is as good as it gets.”

Tenet, an espionage and science fiction thriller in which people can reverse time, has done better overseas, taking close to $150m, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Tenet is currently showing in more than 70 countries, including Canada, Australia, South Korea and most of Europe.

China, where the film premiered on Friday, pulled in more than $8 million in ticket sales on opening day and $30 million over the weekend.

China has been reporting cases in single digits - compared with thousands i the US - and its cinemas are already well ahead in terms of reopening for business. It has already seen notable success with war epic “The Eight Hundred,” which has grossed over $300 million to date.

Nolan is renowned for films that play with issues of time and perspective, and has directed a number of blockbusters including the Dark Knight trilogy, which grossed more than $4bn.

Other distributors have held back their releases in the US as the pandemic there continues. Disney's Mulan, directed by Niki Caro and starring Liu Yifei, drew $5.9 million from nine international markets, including Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand at its opening weekend and will premiere in China and Russia next weekend. In the US, it will be released only on digital platforms.

The latest James Bond film, No Time to Die, which was due for release in April, will now go into cinemas in November.

Tenet stars John David Washington, Kenneth Branagh and Robert Pattinson, who was recently diagnosed with COVID-19 on the set of the latest Batman movie.

It was shot in seven countries.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/...014705126.html

[Stewie]

Did anybody understand this film?

I have watched it a few times and I swear, it’s just mumbo jumbo.. there is no logical explanation of what’s going on.. too many plot issues and of course flawed science.

Thoughts??

[Thunderbolt14]

Did anybody understand this film?

I have watched it a few times and I swear, it’s just mumbo jumbo.. there is no logical explanation of what’s going on.. too many plot issues and of course flawed science.

Thoughts??

It’s not that complicated. You have to think of time as a line which you can bend, once you get the premise it gets really simple.

Science is always going to be flawed as it’s hollywood. I thought it was an interesting concept

[Greenstorm]

Did anybody understand this film?

I have watched it a few times and I swear, it’s just mumbo jumbo.. there is no logical explanation of what’s going on.. too many plot issues and of course flawed science.

Thoughts??

It was a total mess. Couldn't understand at all and wasn't compelled to watch it again either. I will rather watch some documentary on non linear time than this collection of OTT action sequences.

[James]

I liked it.

Would watch it again.

[Robert]

After suffering through that interminable action sequence of Inception I would hesitate to watch this.

I find Nolan overrated. I liked Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, Interstellar and Dunkirk but otherwise it's pretty soulless stuff IMO.

[aliasad1998]

Terrible film. 3/10

[DeadBall]

Did anybody understand this film?

I have watched it a few times and I swear, it’s just mumbo jumbo.. there is no logical explanation of what’s going on.. too many plot issues and of course flawed science.

Thoughts??

There's too much to actually go in to every plot detail, there are many explanations available on the net if you're interested.

Basically its a time travel movie but you can only travel one way and that is to the past at which point you become inverted so one version goes forward while the other version goes backwards.

Even the name of the movie is based on the Forward/Backward theme. In the last 10 minutes piece where the red and blue soldiers move forwards and backwards through time so its Ten forwards plus Ten backwards i,e TEN + NET = TENET.

All in all I found it quite underwhelming but many have said it gets better on the second watch, so I will see if my opinion has changed once I do that.