Christopher Nolan's Tenet could have an entanglement with August as far as European theaters are concerned, as Warner Bros. has been advising exhibitors in the U.K., France and Spain to prepare for an Aug. 26-28 launch according to a new report from Variety.
That means that Tenet will launch on Wednesday the 26th in some territories, and Friday the 28th in others. The action movie had been slated to hit U.S. theaters on Wednesday, Aug. 12 before Warner Bros. removed it from the calendar entirely while promising that its domestic release would be "imminent."
I'm personally a fan of a Wednesday launch here and abroad, as I think it would help thin the herd of moviegoers who traditionally flock to cinemas between Friday and Sunday. What's clear is that Tenet will not receive the benefit of a day-and-date global release, thereby jeopardizing the film's mysterious nature and many of its closely guarded secrets.
One Twitter user by the name of Graham said that tickets were being sold in Ireland for Wednesday, Aug. 26. Tenet is also expected to be released early in Asia, where theaters are back open for business and the Train to Busan sequel Peninsula opened to strong numbers. Of course, piracy could always pose a problem, though that's always a concern with a film as buzzy as Tenet.
International cinemas are as eager for new studio product as domestic chains such as AMC, Regal and Cinemark, which is why Warner Bros. is pressing forward with an "imminent" release despite the fact that its studio counterparts have largely abandoned their plans for 2020. The studio is embracing an unusual and risky strategy for Tenet, but desperate times apparently call for desperate measures.
Tenet isn't the only film that has been removed from the theatrical calendar for the time being, as Disney also left Mulan and Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch undated following a massive release shuffle on Thursday. The pandemic is still surging, with several major markets experiencing spikes, putting theaters at even further risk.
John David Washington stars in Tenet alongside Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki and Kenneth Branagh. The plot involves something called "time inversion," and to find out what the hell that means, click here for details straight from Nolan himself.