Warner Bros. Pictures has removed Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” from its release calendar, indefinitely delaying the sci-fi thriller from its most recent August 12th date.
The move is seen as a major blow to the exhibition industry who have been counting on the film to possibly salvage the last few weeks of a disastrous Summer season and year in the sector.
Warner Bros. chairman Toby Emmerich says in a statement: “We will share a new 2020 release date imminently for Tenet, Christopher Nolan’s wholly original and mind-blowing feature. We are not treating Tenet like a traditional global day-and-date release, and our upcoming marketing and distribution plans will reflect that.”
In other words, the studio is effectively ditching a global day-and-date release strategy and will open the film on a country-by-country (and possibly a city-by-city) basis as public health and government officials deem it safe to do so. When such a rollout will begin is anybody’s guess at this time.
Emmerich’s statement goes on to re-affirm their support of exhibition and being ready to release: “new content as soon as they [movie theaters] could safely reopen”. The studio has also shifted “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” with that third film in that series now arriving June 4th 2021.
No other titles like “Wonder Woman 1984” on October 2nd or “Dune” on December 18th have shifted as yet.
Source: Variety
