Christopher Nolan’s large-scale spy thriller Tenet was supposed to be one of 2020’s biggest films regardless, but in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic it became a bastion of hope for studios to restart the theatrical moviegoing business. After multiple delays, Warner Bros. finally released Tenet in theaters in the U.S. on September 3rd (and in the U.K. a few days beforehand) and promoted it as the film to bring the movies back. But as it turns out, Tenet was not the White Knight the studios had been hoping for, and in the wake of its release almost every major studio pulled its films off what was left of the 2020 release calendar.

Now Nolan himself has broken his silence on the matter, maintaining he’s happy with the $350 million that Tenet pulled in at the worldwide box office but admitting he’s worried that the studios have drawn the “wrong conclusions” from Tenet’s release. In an interview with the LA Times to promote a new book about his filmography The Nolan Variations, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker addressed the “new reality” we’re living in and the performance of Tenet:

“Warner Bros. released Tenet, and I’m thrilled that it has made almost $350 million. But I am worried that the studios are drawing the wrong conclusions from our release — that rather than looking at where the film has worked well and how that can provide them with much needed revenue, they’re looking at where it hasn’t lived up to pre-COVID expectations and will start using that as an excuse to make exhibition take all the losses from the pandemic instead of getting in the game and adapting — or rebuilding our business, in other words.

 

Long term, moviegoing is a part of life, like restaurants and everything else. But right now, everybody has to adapt to a new reality.”

It’s true that Tenet’s box office really can’t be compared to the rest of Nolan’s films, and it will forever have an asterisk attached to it. When it was released, theaters were (and still are) closed in New York and Los Angeles – the two biggest markets – and even then, the public still wasn’t all that interested in venturing to an enclosed space with strangers for two hours in the middle of a pandemic.

The theatrical exhibition business is suffering, there’s no doubt about that, but I also can’t begrudge anyone too scared to visit a movie theater right now. COVID-19 numbers are surging and there’s still no vaccine – you’re literally risking your health by going to a theater. And while it’s true that taking precautions like wearing a mask and socially distancing are working to mitigate that risk, you’re also at the mercy of strangers to keep their masks on during a movie (and theaters to monitor and enforce those policies). And that’s a big ask as wearing a mask has somehow become a political issue.

Obviously the ideal situation here would be to shut down all movie theaters and for the federal government to bail them out until it’s safe to open up everywhere. And obviously that’s not happening. Nolan here is suggesting exhibitors and studios look to where Tenet performed well and lean into that, but again that’s a big ask.

I will say one workaround that has been performing extremely well during the pandemic is drive-in theaters, and I’d be happy to see more studios embracing that kind of experience in releasing new films. For now, though, with pretty much every major 2020 release shifted to 2021, it doesn’t appear as though theaters are going to come roaring back anytime soon.

For a peek at what 2021 has in store, here's a full release calendar of what's (hopefully) coming next year.