For much of the past week, one of the most talked about numbers in the film industry has been that of the $20 million opening that Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” made at the domestic box office during the Labor Day holiday weekend.
The number is being seen as soft, even with the current circumstances of audience concerns over the pandemic, limited audience numbers due to social distancing measures, and key box-office markets like Los Angeles and New York being shut.
Now though, Variety & Deadline report that the numbers we do have aren’t exactly what they seem – Warner Bros. Pictures is reportedly refusing to share any more box office details than the film’s first opening weekend gross. In fact, the number we got was given out “as a courtesy”.
It also indicates that the gross amount reported includes all the previews which kicked off several days before opening night – making this more of a first week rather than first weekend gross. The actual four-day opening holiday weekend domestic gross for “Tenet” is estimated to be around $12 million.
That makes the reporting on this weekend complicated because many will still be using the old $20 million figure and so if the figures are released, a second weekend drop will be seen as much more severe than it was. That is, if the figures are released. For now, studios may well simply stop reporting their grosses.
